'Newly-launched call centre a game changer for migrant workers'

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The National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) has launched a migrant workers call centre to track migrants and help them to work in the designated jobs they signed for while going abroad.

The platform will also help migrants who fall out of employment to safely return home.

There have been worrying reports that some people, after losing their jobs overseas, remain stranded and desperate, with some even forced into sexual activities to survive.

Others seek employment elsewhere, where they cannot be easily traced by the Ugandan government.

Lawrence Egunyu, a commissioner in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, hailed the creation of the migrant labour call centre.

Speaking at the launch on Thursday, he said the platform will help curb cases of people being smuggled out of the country to work abroad and instead end up being mistreated, with some even losing their lives.

With the call centre, all migrants will get to know the specific type of jobs that are going out for, said the commissioner.

"Their relatives will be able to talk to them while abroad and discuss how to manage their savings."

Egunyu said they had received reports of over 500 migrants from Uganda in Cambodia seeking to return home, and that the foreign affairs ministry is working with foreign agencies to ensure their repatriation.

He said authorities don't know how they ended up in Cambodia.

NOTU secretary Richard Bigirwa said that with the newly-launched call centre, issues relating to migrant workers will be handled together with all the agencies dealing with labour migration.

He said a toll-free centre line and WhatsApp number have been created to ease communication: 0800111445 and +25679290147. 

People have also been encouraged to download the NOTU Workers app to access the call centre.

Bigirwa said they will have direct contacts of the employers so that they can communicate with workers abroad.

He said they want migrant workers to voluntarily channel a portion of their savings through the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) for the period they are away for work.

“We need these people to come back and find something other than coming back empty-handed.

"I would like to appeal to the recruitment firms that we are going to work closely with NSSF, which has amended the law to allow even voluntary contribution."

Douglas Opio, the executive director of the Federation of Uganda Employers, called the launch of the call centre a "significant milestone".

"We have had challenges regarding migrant workers yet their voices were silent. We did not have the opportunity to hear from them."

Opio believes things are now going to change for the better for migrant workers.

Hailing support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the labour ministry, the executive director said if jobs are not enough in Uganda, external labour is the next option and it should be done the right way.