Government has suspended licensing and registration of new external labour recruitment companies amid human trafficking allegations and abuse of procedures and torture.
According to a notice issued by Mr Pius Bigirimana, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, the move is intended to review internal processes and procedures in the management of externalisation of labour.
“The ministry of gender, labour and social development is currently reviewing internal processes and procedures in the management of externalisation of labour. This is in an effort to improve overall workflow efficiency in the external employment management information system. On that note, the ministry has temporarily suspended the licensing of new external labour recruitment companies until further notice,” the notice reads.
There are reports that some officials connive with external labour exporters to illegally clear underage girls to work as maids in Arab countries. Others have either left the country without medical check-up or with fake documents.
According to Daily Monitor, Mr Bigirimana, confirmed the content of the notice and said without disclosing the details that there is an internal evaluation process going on to effectively manage the external labour export.
“Yes, I have issued that notice and we are carrying out internal evaluation of the process to ensure that we do the right things as government and also the same with the labour exporters,” Mr Bigirimana said.
Under the Labour Externalisation Policy, the Ministry of Gender has since 2015 moved to regularise the movement of labour, recording about 70,000 Ugandans moving to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Qatar and Afghanistan in search of labour.
However, the number could be much higher given that many other labourers are irregularly recruited. Security agencies estimate that between 20,000 and 30,000 Ugandans travel to work in the Middle East illegally.
