Over the past few weeks, honorable Betty Nambooze, MP Mukono South went on a campaign against migrant labor workers in the middle East of Ugandan Origin. The legislator went on air waves DE-campaigning labor export companies and also went on to make wild accusations against owners of these companies in an effort to criminalize the operations.
The Mp’s campaign has not fallen on deaf ears with more campaigners joining her fight especially on social media parading images of reportedly mistreated individuals especially women who it is claimed are treated inhumanely and live under slave like conditions.
Genesis
Labor export companies have existed in Uganda since the early 2000’s in the aftermath of the war in Iraq with western coalition countries seeking staff from mainly English speaking African countries to help staff and man military operation bases.
On top of the that, the oil boom and growth in demand for oil globally led to the rise of a wealthy educated class of individuals in the middle east countries thereby leading to shortage of man power for manual labor. As it was, many African countries have long had large numbers of unemployed and energetic populations and as always market forces have dictated the free movement of labor to feel this demand and gap.
Why the excitement
Whereas it is of little doubt that some individuals have been poorly treated by their employers in the middle east, we cannot deny that such poor conditions do not exist even here at home. Unfortunately, our embassies in these countries have not been fully facilitated to handle the massive number of complaints that and this gap may have led to some individuals seeking alternative channels to address their malaise.
According to New vision, Uganda received $1.2b (about sh4.5trillion) in 2017, in remittances, accounting for 5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and was projected to rise by 18% in 2018. There within lays the gist of the matter.
The opposition parliamentarians have always looked for ways to discredit this government especially where it has made strides and gains.
The number of Ugandans currently employed in the middle east alone is estimated to be above 300,000. These Ugandans are currently providing for their families and contributing positively to the growth of this country.
How many jobs has Betty Nambooze with all due respect to her established in her own constituency of Mukono South? It is no wonder a group of youth from the area recently held a demonstration against the Mp, protesting her actions against their rights to seek and hold gainful employment were they wished.
As always, the opposition has rather than provide solutions and alternative policy, have continued to shoot down good will projects to fetch political mileage. This is the absurd reality of our politics, that a whole Member of Parliament chooses to exploit the plight of grieving individuals and families for selfish political capital and gains. What else does parading an image of a weeping woman achieve besides sympathy for the politician. There are very many ways an MP can come to the help of other similarly deprived individuals, by lets say advocating for better policy to improve the conditions of work for migrant workers. Positive change can be achieved through legislature, but this is unlikely to happen when the actors always seek to play to the gallery rather than exercising real influence on world events.
Way forward
The government of Uganda has set up a myriad of interventions to help labor seekers in the middle east such as establishment of consulates and high commissions to offer redress to aggrieved parties in countries were none existed. The government also through the Ministry of Gender and labor has instituted stricter regulations on labor export companies in a bid to have their processes streamlined.
The government has also increased awareness and security at boarder points to restrict illegal exportation of labor by traffickers. The President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has set up a number of initiatives to help the youth come out of poverty such as the Skilling the Girl child Project and the youth Livelihood project among others that have sought to equip the vulnerable youth with skills and competencies to help them create jobs for themselves and others in there communities.
