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OPINION

By Usher Wilson Owere

The past two weeks have been quite laborious.

We in the labour externalisation sector have been in the spotlight and received a fair share of the public’s bashing.

As a very keen and interested stakeholder, I have been involved at the different levels; first as a follower. I have read hundreds of threads of comments, ordeals, lamentations and pain encountered by Ugandans working in the Gulf countries.

All these seem to paint a picture that labour externalisation is an evil scheme that has come to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans under the guise of employment.

The turn of events has sparked a number of questions in my head, the most critical being that, is labour externalisation this bad? Do we really have anything good to write home about it? If there are any positives when do they see the light of the day? Gulf countries have contributed to the development of this sector, but by default all the blame and outcry seems to point towards them. I am also wondering; why then do we continue to export our labour to these countries, if they are this despicable? Which other countries are freely opening their doors to our people like the Middle East countires?

I have been involved in mediating labour export disputes and also been on the ground following up with the recruiters, labour associations and trainers, especially during the time when the Internet was ablaze with narrations and outcries from Ugandan labour migrants in the Middle East countries. My findings actually reveal that there is a wide gap between what is happening on the ground and what is trending on the Internet.

During our courtesy visits to the recruitment centres, the medical centres, Interpol issuing centres, training centres and all migrants clearing centres it was business as usual; the numbers had slightly increased from the sector slump that was experienced since last September. This can be attributed to the season bearing in mind that Ramadhan is around the corner and so an increase in the demand for maids before the beginning of the fasting.

I have also interacted with the potential migrants several times. At one training centre, we engaged the migrant trainees into a conversation trying to understand what they feel about all this and why they still want to go overseas. It emerged that actually half of the class were direct recruits; they had been recommended to the Arab sponsors by their relatives who had travelled before them.

This happens when a domestic worker is deployed and she performs well. The family she works for will ask her to recommend any other relative to go and work with her and this is common when this girl is about to complete her contract period. During the debate, the girls also acknowledged that they are partly to blame, citing issues like failure to adapt to the new environment, inability to communicate properly with the Arabs, laziness amongst some workers and peer influence from social media.

For instance, it is now becoming normal to broker the girls’ escapes from the families where these have been deployed. Some Ugandans are doing this kind of business unabated. So many other issues came out, for instance the issue of lack of self-control with some girls failing to use their phones responsibly and these end up distracting them from carrying out their duties properly and others.

All these revelations never see the light of the day. Labour externalisation has become the new genre of media sensationalism. The media has blown things out of proportion partly due to their failure to give the public a fair picture of the sector.

I wish to commend Hon. Ibrahim Semujju Nganda on his objectiveness. Ssemujju observed in Parliament that while it is true there is a gross outcry by Ugandans in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, the contribution of labour externalisation to the economy is way higher than that of all the cash crops combined. I concur with this observation. Actually, previously in my article I shared that in the year 2021 labour externalisation surpassed the tourism sector, contributing a whopping $13.7b. The sector also has a multiplier effect and this has severally been observed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

A migrant is important not only to themselves, but also to their families and communities. When a migrant remits their income there is a chain of beneficiaries that will reap from it. The same is true before she/he migrates.

A number of players are involved in the chain both public and private: medical centres, training centres, recruitment companies, passport office, visa office, airlines, airport among others. The importance of this sector cannot be overemphasised. So, what can be done? I think it is high time that we re-organised ourselves. Part of the problem is that back home in the country of origin of the migrant there is a lot of chaos and people not fully taking responsibility and nobody to hold anybody accountable. If labour externalisation is this significant, it should be treated as such.

Let the good stories of migrants who benefit from this also come to light. The countries where we export our labour should also be respected and appreciated, where there is need for talks let them take place. This sector has given hope to many Ugandans, especially the non-skilled and semi-skilled labour. Recruitment companies have become places of hope for many women running away from violent homes.

Recruiters are now offering counselling services and so are other stakeholders like trainers. We, therefore, need the public to also appreciate this and instead of being judgmental let us join our hands together and revive the sector.

For God and My Country.

The writer is the chief of labour affairs — External Labour Power House.