The Ministry
of Gender, Labour and Social Development has collected 7 Billion Shillings since
October from labour export companies.
According to Hillary Talemwa, the head of Labour Externalization at the
Ministry, the money was collected from October 19 2021 up to May 1st, 2022.
Talemwa says the money is mainly from licenses and processing of job
placements, that is provided for in the revised regulations for migrant
workers. Companies pay shillings 2 million for a license while foreign
recruitment agencies pay 30 US dollars for each job placement order to be
processed at the gender ministry.
In August, the Ministry issued fresh regulations for the recruitment of Ugandan
migrant workers to among others tighten its grip on labour export companies.
Titled “The Employment (Recruitment of Ugandan migrant workers) Regulations
2021 Statutory Instrument 47 of 2021”, the regulation aims at among others
revoking the Employment (Recruitment of Ugandan migrant Workers Abroad)
Regulations, 2005, Statutory Instrument 62 of 2005, upholding the dignity and
rights of migrant workers by prescribing the appropriate terms and conditions
of their employment and providing mechanisms for regulating activities of
companies and their agents.
The new regulations indicate that all companies must apply for a license or
renewal of the license by among others paying fees of Shillings 2 million up from shillings 500,000. The application must include the names and nationality
of employees, directors, and shareholders, their biodata, dates of employment,
their tax returns for the preceding year, and clearance from the Criminal
Investigations Directorate.
Also, shareholders and directors of a recruitment company in Uganda must
be Ugandans contrary to the previous regulations, which only required half of
them to be Ugandans. The companies will also be required to have a minimum authorized
capital of 50 million shillings and a bank guarantee of 100 million shillings
up from 10 million and 50 million shillings respectively provided for in the
2005 regulations.
Talemwa says the ministry has so far licensed 231 local labour companies
and 439 foreign recruitment agencies. He adds that since 2019, close to
250,000 Ugandans have left the country to work abroad, especially in the Gulf
countries.
According to figures from the ministry, an average of 400 Ugandan migrant
workers leave the country daily for work abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, United
Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
30,823 Ugandan migrant workers left the country in the first four months of
this year, of which 91 percent, that is 27,931, of these, went to Saudi Arabia,
followed by Qatar and lastly UAE.
However, as
the government collects money from labour export companies, there have been
calls for better protection of migrant workers.
Migrant workers complain about physical torture, delayed or non-payment of
wages, long working hours, poor working conditions, lack of access to health
services, confiscation of personal documents such as passports, forced labour,
organ harvesting and sexual harassment among others.
Ronnie Mukundane, the Spokesperson of Uganda Association for External
Recruitment Agencies-UAERA, says that the over 200 labour export companies
continue seeking engagements with the gender ministry over the new regulations.
Mukundane says the ministry did not consult the migrant workers and labour
export companies before coming up with the regulations.
"We
need a labour externalization policy which should provide for consultation of
key stakeholders particularly migrant workers and companies for a better
governance of the business which is recovering post-COVID-19."
He however
is optimistic that the regulations will weed the industry of unscrupulous
companies that have been associated with human trafficking, fake job adverts,
and charging intending migrant workers exorbitant fees among others.
