The Government of Uganda has lifted the two-year ban on issuing of new licences to companies seeking to export labour to the Middle East.
The government banned the issuance of new licences for labour export companies in 2019 to allow room for investigations into abuse of the process.
And now the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development says effective February 1, 2022, they will start issuing new licences.
The ministry says this comes after it came up with clear laws on managing the process dubbed the Employment (Recruitment of Ugandan Migrant Workers) Regulations, 2021, Statutory Instrument No.47 of 2021, which came into effect on 13th August 2021.
“The new Regulations have introduced a number of measures to address some of the challenges, details of which can be accessed on www.ecmis.mglsd.go.ug,” the ministry said in a statement issued on Friday, 14 January 2022.
The government also days it has embarked on the signing and/or review of Bilateral Labour Agreements/Memorandum of Understanding on Manpower supply with countries of destination.
“In December 2021, the Minister visited her counterpart in UAE with the aim of operationalizing the MoU, which we signed in 2019. In January 2022, the Minister will visit the State of Qatar to sign the MoU which was negotiated way back in 2017 as well as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to initiate discussions on the review of the MoU signed in 2017. We are also at various stages of negotiating and signing agreements with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Turkey and Jordan,” the government says.
Cabinet has also instructed the Ministry to consider establishment of Shelters to enable us handle cases of Ugandans in distress or who have had their rights violated and also institute effective monitoring measures, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to curb the persistent outcry from Ugandans in those countries.
“Using resources from the non-tax revenues generated, we intend to deploy up to three Labour Attaches to reinforce our Embassies in destination countries and ensure that our migrants are safe, more and better jobs are sourced, and those in distress are provided the necessary support they need,” the ministry said.
The Migrant workers are mostly deployed in the Middle East countries of the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Somalia, Kuwait and Qatar.
The Ministry has to date licensed 216 private external labour recruitment companies and over 300,000 Ugandans have been formally externalized to work abroad since 2005.