The United Arab Emirates government is to repatriate additional 150 stranded migrant workers back to Uganda.
The female migrants who had been stranded at the deportation centres in UAE are expected to arrive in two batches at Entebbe International Airport on Saturday.
Sources from UAE police revealed that the girls are coming in two batches with Air Arabia and Fly Dubai.
This is one of the many flights of stranded migrant workers (girls) to be repatriated back home in Uganda by the United Arab Emirates government in collaboration with Uganda government.
On 15th October 2022, UAE government in partnership with Uganda government deported the 29 stranded girls after they were processed from the deportation centres. On arrival at Entebbe, 15 girls were picked by a group from NUP and later made to appear on an online TV Mapmedia with Bobi Wine who claimed to have facilitated their deportation.
The same incident happened on 18th October 2022 when over 30 people were deported and of those, 11 girls were later that evening paraded by Bobi Wine and claimed that he had also facilitated their come back.
This publication have also obtained information that NUP and its leaders are planning to stage manage a similar incident at the Entebbe Airport on Saturday after the arrival of this group. The information revealed that NUP is planning to pick the third group of stranded girls due to land at Entebbe Airport on Saturday and claim full responsibility of repatriating them.
It should also be recalled that following several complaints from stranded Ugandans in deportation centers, the United Arab Emirates police is looking for Nakalyango also known as Naka Wa Bobi and a one Jax for allegedly extorting and taking advantage of stranded girls.
According to UAE police, the suspects work with Sherry and Kayima Shamim Nalumansi both former workers at Dubai airport who also are on a wanted list for dealing with some Ugandan counter parts to help the migrants run away from the law once they are deported.
The UAE Government has vowed to arrest, deport and hand over NUP agents involved in extorting and politicizing the mandatory deportation policy of stranded migrants to the International Police.
It has been established, that the decision to arrest these suspects follows discovery that a group of NUP youth both in Dubai corroborate with NUP leaders in Uganda to pick deportees from Entebbe Airport, give them incentives of Ugx. 100,000 and have them make defaming statements against the UAE and the Ugandan government.
Entebbe Airport Authorities explained that deportation is a normal and legal practice by all Nations worldwide that sees illegal migrants sent back to their homes.
It should be noted that the UAE government recently offered free air tickets to all illegal migrants to return home after asking them to surrender to immigration authorities or face imprisonment for illegal stay in the middle-east country.
Following this amnesty, the Ugandan Government within its diplomatic capacities engaged the immigration authorities in the UAE to see the plight of the stranded Ugandans comes to an end. Both the Ugandan and UAE authorities made arrangements to ensure that hundreds of stranded illegal migrants from Uganda be safely returned home.
According to Ambassador Henry Mayega, Uganda’s consul general in Dubai, infants, breastfeeding and pregnant mothers will be given first priority to return home.
The claim by NUP leadership in Uganda that they are the ones helping the migrants, could lead some party members including Bobi wine in trouble of being blacklisted for tempting to ruin the cordial diplomatic relationship Uganda enjoys with the UAE.
In September 2022, Uganda’s embassy in Abu-Dhabi said that effective October 2022, no Ugandan or Nigerian national will be allowed to enter the UAE without a certificate of good conduct and a floating amount of 5,000 Dirham (Shs 5.3 million) in their bank account.
According to Ronnie Mukundane, the spokesperson of the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA), the move is meant to cub the increased trafficking of Ugandans into the UAE
