Kampala – Workers’ Member of Parliament Arinaitwe Rwakajara has emphasized the need for a law to regulate labour externalization in Uganda.
He says this will help reduce the prevailing challenges experienced by Ugandan immigrant workers especially those in the Middle East.
MP Rwakajara made the remarks on Tuesday during a workshop organized by Uganda Council of Foreign Relations and the European University Institute in Kampala.
“Externalization of labor has proven to be a very huge sector that brings a lot of money in Uganda, gives our people employment and is unstoppable. So it should be properly regulated and this can be done by having an independent law not the employment act or any other laws,” said Rwakajara
He added, “Under that law, we should have labor attachés in all embassies where our workers are received, a reception center so that when our people come back and are stressed, they are resettled and reintegrated into the society,”
The MP also noted the need for increasing the pre-departure training period from two weeks to at least a month.
“The syllabus is good but the time of delivering it is very short so it needs about a month for it to be covered such that the workers going out get exactly what they’re supposed to get. This will help them not to have issues with their employers, understand their employment and what they are going to do so that they don’t get shocks,” he said
The MP was reacting to a report titled Migration governance and migration diplomacy in Uganda: An agenda for a migrant-centered approach presented by Prof Edward Grace Galabuzi the Ag. Executive Director at the Makerere Institute for Social Research, Makerere University
The report launched in July last year analyses migration as an important area for Ugandan’s policy making, identifies potential new directions in Uganda’s approach to the foreign policy and diplomatic dimensions of migration policy, and makes recommendations for future policy development
According to the report, some of the abuses and rights violations that migrant workers face are physical and sexual abuse, withholding of salaries, and overwork for female domestic workers especially in the middle East.
The report among others recommends the fast trucking of the Labour Migration Policy by government to give clear direction to the development of a suitable labour migration regime.
The workshop was also attended by the State Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Charles Okello Engola and the State Minister of Foreign Affairs Henry Okello Oryem among other invited guests.
