BY DAVID SSOZZI
This week the National Unity Platform Diaspora leader Dr. Daniel Kawuma, on behalf of Ugandan Migrant workers in the Middle East petitioned to the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.
“Organ harvesting. Verbal, physical and psychological abuse and violence. Assault, harassment, exploitation, racism, discrimination. Withholding of salaries, starvation or inadequate meals. Long working hours or no rest, working in multiple houses and lack of privacy. Denial of treatment or there is inadequate medical treatment for the workers.” Dr. Daniel Stated in the petition.
Over the years the government of Uganda has deliberately allowed the migration of labor capacitated with the many fortune hunter, the recruitment agencies that promise the nationals of the country with well-paying jobs, good working conditions and direct life changing prospects amidst the many atrocities embedded in the activity especially cases of sexual harassment, rape, torture and exploitation.
Despite the existence of the Labor externalization process of the government, it is a mandate that this body through the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development undertakes to regulate the export of labor to foreign countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and Mali among others.
Accord to the preliminary report of the committee on gender, labor and social development on the externalization of labor phenomenon on August 29 , 2019, the Committee was assigned to investigate the externalization of labor phenomenon and come up with a preliminary report to the Parliament.
The directive was in response to concerns raised by members regarding the harmful consequences of Externalization of Labor and what the government has done to address these concerns especially mistreatment of Uganda migrant workers in the Middle East.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, more than 3,000 Ugandans are flown to other countries, creating jobs for more than 36,000 Ugandans.
In spite of some of these positive indicators, almost every week, reports of mistreatment of Ugandan migrant workers especially in the Middle East are reported in the press, social media, platforms including; Facebook, YouTube, Tiltok, Whatsapp.
The most current exhibition of grievances were when Robert Kyagulanyi’s National Unity Platform an opposition political party that helped in repatriating some of the Ugandans that had got stack and some held captive in Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, according to the International Organization Human Rights Watch refers to these condition near-slavery. In 1908 Ottoman Empire abolished slavery but the law was not enforced in the Arabia Peninsula to which Saudi Arabia was an associate. After World War II and because of the international pressure from the United Nations to end slavery,
Saudi Arabia officially abolished slavery in 1962 the exact year Uganda attained her independence, however according to the United States Department of State says, “Unofficial Slavery is rumored to exist.”
The petitioners recommend the governments of Uganda and Saudi Arabia to streamline the Bilateral labor Agreement to address the gaps, “A Filipino worker earns anywhere between Shs1.4m t 1.9m while an Indonesian earns Shs1.7m to Shs1.9m. But Ugandans earns Shs881,734 for the same work. We propose a rate of Shs1.5m which meets the minimum standards according to Layboard.in, stopping all the illegal transfers (selling) of migrant workers between different households,” the petitioners suggest.
According to Ms Betty Amongi Ongom, the labour minister, “In December 2017, the two countries signed two agreements; The Domestic Workers’ Recruitment Agreement and the General Workers, Recruitment Agreement to facilitate safe and decent work opportunities and environments for Ugandan Migrant Workers. Saudi Arabia is a key destination for Ugandan Migrant Workers estimated to be more than 140,000, in different categories across the expansive terrain,” she said in a report on the visit to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
She said that a number of issues affecting the welfare of Ugandan Workers in the Kingdom were raised, including, “The need to stem irregular and increasing cases of transfer of Domestic Workers’ services from one sponsor/Employer to another outside the control of Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development.”
Donor countries to Saudi Arabia in terms of labor are extremely threatened because of the cyclized cases of human rights violation and denial of human freedoms before and during a time when the Saudi government only recognizes contracts for foreign workers written in Arabic.
Therefore, it is a call from the noble people to the government to clearly analyze these bilateral labor agreements between Saudi Arabia and Uganda for the betterment of the migrant workers.
