Ugandan parliament bans export of maids

By Moses Walubiri & Joyce Namutebi

KAMPALA - Parliament has passed a resolution banning the export of Ugandan girls and women to work abroad as maids, following harrowing tales of abuse by their employers.

The ban follows a report to the House in which the minister of state for the elderly and disability, Sulaiman Madada, said the government was aware of complaints about the abuse of Ugandans working as maids, especially in Arab countries.

However, he added: “The externalisation of labour is important in finding Ugandans jobs as the government improves the capacity of the local economy to provide employment.”

The minister said 24 companies have been licensed to export labour.

In the ensuing debate, however, lawmakers faulted the government for abandoning desperate Ugandans, which has left them at the mercy of licensed companies interested in making profits.

“We should demand that these companies account for the girls they export to foreign countries. We have received complaints of humiliation, sexual assault and sodomy by their employers,” said the human rights committee chairperson, Jovah Kamateka.

Sex slave

MP Medard Sseggona said many Ugandans seeking employment in foreign countries out of desperation sign contracts that cannot be enforced in the Ugandan courts.

Legislators Elijah Okupa and Jack Sabiti brought the attention of the House to the plight of a young Ugandan woman locked up by her employer in Kuwait, who has been calling a host of lawmakers, seeking for government intervention.

The girl, according to Okupa, claims she has been turned into a sex slave.

Nakasongola Woman MP Margaret Komuhangi moved the House to consider slapping a moratorium on the export of Ugandan girls and women to work as maids.

Parliament has handled a number of petitions by Ugandans who are taken by labour-exporting firms to work, especially in the Middle East.

The first such petition was in 2009, against Uganda Veterans Ltd., where girls who were taken to Iraq to work in American bases ended up being distributed to Iraqi families, where they claim to have suffered gross abuse without pay.

The girls say their documents are confiscated immediately upon arrival in foreign countries, and are made to do work different from the one agreed upon.

In August, the principal labour officer in charge of statistics at the labour ministry, Milton Turyasiima, said 42,015 Ugandans have left the country for the Middle East in search of employment since 2006.


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