In 2017, the Uganda government blacklisted Oman as a destination for Ugandans who were seeking work abroad as domestic workers.
The stories then coming out of Oman (and other Middle Eastern countries) of torture and mistreatment of Ugandan domestic workers were hellish. Back then, the government warned that it could not guarantee the safety of Ugandans working in Oman, citing the lack of a bilateral agreement with Oman.
The export of Ugandan labour to the Gulf and Middle East is a fat cash cow raking in millions of dollars in remittances. These thousands of Ugandans, aged 21 to 36 years, in the prime of their youth, seek better livelihoods abroad due to poverty and youth unemployment at home.
These youthful Ugandans are the proverbial goose that laid golden eggs. If we must send our golden goose abroad as domestic workers (shhh…let’s not talk the failure to create sustainable work opportunities and enabling environments for our young people in their own country), we must ensure their protection.
Therefa, the recent development in early April where the government signed a bilateral agreement with Oman and plans to ink a labour export deal with the Middle East country sounds like steady progress as this paves way for more youthful Ugandans to seek work abroad.
On April 25, The Observer headline blared, ‘Minister Anyakun vouches for new market for Ugandans in Oman’ accompanied by a lovely photo of the minister and an Omani government representative smiling for the cameras.
Yet, proceed with caution, as we now know that smiley photos and ‘ministerial vouching’ are simply not enough when Ugandan migrant workers are trapped abroad in exploitative situations.
For too long, we have heard continually of the hell many (Africans) citizens go through seeking better work opportunities in Arab nations.
The stories are unfailingly harrowing and leave one with a palpable powerlessness. Too many young women who expected better work opportunities in the Gulf countries and the Middle East have returned home broken and haggard, their robust youth frittered away, a dullness in their-once-bright-eyes, penniless save for the clothes on their backs and a lifetime of trauma.
On Oman, which Uganda had previously blacklisted, we need to hear from the ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development about new and improved concrete measures to protect Ugandans working in Oman. What has changed in Oman that gives us confidence that Ugandan migrant workers will be protected?
On our home turf, what is the government going to do differently to guarantee the safety of Ugandans in Oman? So far, the government’s record in rescuing Ugandan migrant workers is inconsistent, buoyed largely by public outcry when the stories of suffering are too painful.
The US State Department 2023 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report on Uganda observes that while Uganda has made significant progress in countering TIP, it is far from Uhuru. Uganda has especially made progress investigating and prosecuting more trafficking crimes, and registered the highest conviction rate in 2023 since reporting began.
However, the government still falls short in critical areas like victim protection and rehabilitation, funding of anti-trafficking activities, and support to Ugandan migrant workers, among others.
Yet, we return to Oman for Oman has carved out a fearsome reputation when it comes to human rights violations against migrant workers.
On March 18, BBC Africa Eye released an investigative documentary, “Trapped in Oman”, documenting the harrowing conditions of Malawian migrant workers in Oman.
The Malawian government, working with an anti-human trafficking agency, Do Bold, spent more than $160,000 to repatriate 54 Malawian women from Oman. One woman returned home in a coffin.
However, Omani authorities asserted that they had not received any labour complaints from Malawian domestic workers in 2022 and received only one complaint in 2023, which complaint they settled.
In 2008, Oman adopted an anti-trafficking law that prohibits all forms of trafficking and lists punishments of seven to 15 years of imprisonment and monetary fines. However, conviction rates are low – “between 2019 and March 2022, there were no prosecutions for forced labour, including domestic servitude,” noted Do Bold. A bright red flag.
Do Bold works with migrant workers in the Gulf countries, identifying victims of trafficking and forced labour and then negotiating with their employers for their release. Do Bold told the BBC that the biggest challenge to securing the release of migrant workers comes from the employers or labour recruitment agents who demand $1,000 to $2,000 for the release of each migrant worker.
The Omani labour laws, based on the Kafala system (prevalent in the region), do not permit domestic workers to leave their employers no matter how badly they are treated. The worker cannot change jobs or leave the country without their employer’s approval. This severe system of control leaves migrant workers prone to abuse. Another crimson red flag.
In September 2022, Do Bold released a report chronicling the experiences of more than 600 female domestic workers from Sierra Leone working in Oman for 22 months. The findings exposed a thriving human trafficking enterprise and widespread accepted practices that indicate forced labour in Oman.
Most of the “Sierra Leonean women domestic workers experienced deceptive recruitment (78 per cent), long working hours (80 per cent worked between 16 and 20 hours a day and 99 per cent had no day off), restriction of movement (91 per cent), and discrimination (77 per cent). More than half of them experienced wage theft (60 per cent) and physical abuse (57 per cent) and approximately one-third of them experienced sexual abuse (27 per cent).” Multiple red flags!
Yes, we have a bilateral agreement with Oman – that should offer us a veneer of protection – right? A bilateral agreement is not a magic wand that casts out the mistreatment and torture of migrant workers.
Existing bilateral agreements with Gulf and Middle Eastern countries have not stopped the human rights abuse of Ugandan migrant workers.
Journalist Culton Scovia Nakamya in a December 2023 article, ‘Ugandan women pay the price of exploitation’ quotes labour activists who lament that these bilateral agreements fail because they are often not enforced.
A Uganda Human Rights Commission official, in a European Union Trust Fund for Africa report (December 2022) on the experiences of Ugandan women migrant workers in the Gulf, commented, “When we talk about prosecution, do we have jurisdiction? At what point can Uganda support the Embassy there to bring an action against the abusers and perpetrators, so that these girls get justice? We have seen these girls and women who came back, and their organs had been taken and we cannot even trust the families they were in or where they were, and no action has been taken where they were, so it becomes a challenge when it comes to access to justice.”
On April 25, as Ugandan media trumpeted the news of Uganda’s bilateral agreement with Oman, The Guardian newspaper published an investigative report documenting the experiences of 50 migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Jordan.
The investigation disclosed that migrant workers continue to face appalling conditions facilitated by national laws based on the Kafala system. A Sierra Leonean female domestic worker profiled in The Guardian article, lamented, “Africans have no rights here…Even when you go to the police, whatever Omanis say is final.”
The report further pointed out that while some countries have attempted to reform their Kafala laws, Oman, our new bestie, has not.
Acknowledging that it will take significant pressure (the type that only ‘donor’ nations can exert) to ensure the protection of vulnerable migrant workers, Kevin Bales, professor of contemporary slavery at the University of Nottingham, told The Guardian that Western nations like the United Kingdom are unlikely to rock that boat with the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries. Why?
“These are oil-rich countries that buy very significant amounts of military hardware and tech – as well as other exports – and certainly the current government would never want to rock that boat.” A red flag of the entanglement of interests.
Kwonka, here we are. The red flags are bright for all to see. Sending Ugandan youths to a fate our government can neither effectively influence nor police. The odds are not in our favour as a poor country with rising youth unemployment. For these bilateral agreements to hold their weight, Uganda must pull up to the table loaded.
If African leaders must continue this sheepish labour export that allows them the convenience of sidestepping the challenging work of creating viable employment opportunities for their youthful populations, then at least, they should band together when making these labor agreements.
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The writer is a tayaad muzzukulu