KAMPALA – The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development has suspended licenses of six labour export companies on allegations of flouting labour export procedures.
The spokesperson of the Gender Ministry, Frank Mugabi, said Middle East Consultants, Ellite Placement Consulting, Eagle Supervision, Ellite Winners Agency, Spotlight International and High Ground International Ltd were involved in charging illegal registration and placement fees from its clients.
Mr Mugabi said some of these companies such as Middle East Consultants Ltd had been suspended and warned over the same procedures but they have not complied.
“When we went and inspected, after a number of complaints we found that many of them had not complied, so they are all suspended,” he said.
A number of Ugandans have complained against companies that promise them jobs abroad, pay money but never get jobs nor the money. Horror stories have been told of the girls taken abroad, their passports confiscated and abused. Some of them come back dead or sick, while others don’t earn the money they are promised before leaving Uganda.
Last year, Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze said the government must ban labour export companies and instead set up a public-funded labour agency at the Gender Ministry headed by a commissioner to stop profit-oriented private companies who allegedly sell citizens into slavery.
This was after she helped an abused girl that had gone abroad to work return to the country. She was arrested at Entebbe International Airport and temporarily denied a chance to see relatives, a move that raised suspicion over the owners of the labour export companies.
