Joint Press Statement issued at the launch of the "Return Enslaved Ugandan Girls" Campaign

JOINT PRESS STATEMENT ON THE LAUNCH OF THE CAMPAIGN ON LABOUR JUSTICE UNDER THE THEME; “RETURN ENSLAVED UGANDAN GIRLS!”

Presented by:

TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERS NETWORK- AFRICA (TRANET- AFRICA) AND CENTRE FOR PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (CEPARD) UGANDA YOUTH ALLIANCE FOR FAMILY PLANNING AND ADOLESCENT HEALTH (UYAFPAH) STUDENTS FOR GLOBAL DEMOCRACY- UGANDA CHAPTER (SGD), TEAM7 AND THE YOUTH CONSORTIUM FOR LABOUR JUSTICE (YOKOLAJ)

ON THE 12^TH AUGUST 2016

AT TRANET-AFRICA SECRETARIAT

PLOT 15 VUBYA CLOSE NTINDA-NAKAWA ROAD
KAMPALA, UGANDA

For More information on the Campaign, send us an email at info@tranetafrica.org   or at the above physical address

BACKGROUND:

We note and acknowledge the effort that government through its different agencies has put in place to combat human trafficking, create jobs, and create favorable and friendly working conditions and environments for the Ugandans domestically and abroad. Specifically we would like to applaud the government upon halting the process of exportation of workers to United Arab Emirates, Dubai among others. This shows commitment to ending the life-threatening situation at hand.

We do appreciate the recent government programmes such as the Youth Livelihoods Programme and the recently introduced Women’s Enterprise Fund. Whereas the Youth Livelihoods Program has its flaws, we are hopeful that if reviewed and key changes to the program made, it shall go a long way in boosting youth startups and investments.

 However, despite all the steps that government has taken to avert this situation, we are concerned that it is slow and taking long to save the lives of many Ugandans whose lives are at a mess.  We are particularly concerned about the nature and quality of jobs created by the private sector especially the multinational companies and the foreigners who assume most of the positions in those companies majorly at managerial and supervisory levels leaving out Ugandans who are qualified. This is not only discriminatory, but also a major contributing factor to unemployment and underemployment and also makes us questions if there is compliance with certain labour and employment laws in the country.

The major contributing factor to the influx of the youth and women into the oversea countries is due to the limited jobs in the country and the poor quality of the available jobs. Unless government scales up provision of quality jobs and institutes checks and balances on the recruitment companies most Ugandans will use any means within their reach to find “lucrative jobs” which will still turn out to be a problem.

Research has shown that trafficking women for sexual slavery has become the second world’s lucrative crimes after drug trafficking and arms deals with the highest number of women reported to come from Uganda.

The research further reveals that Uganda is a source and destination country for commercial sexual exploitation. It also showed that young girls and women were lured into sex trafficking within East Africa, Europe and Asian countries. According to the study, Uganda still falls short of its international obligation to protect her citizens against sexual offences and human trafficking, despite the State’s efforts to combat this on the legislative front.

The surprising thing about this whole situation is that despite the existence of the ministry of Internal Affairs responsible for issuance of travel documents and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in those mentioned countries, the Police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not have exact figures of Ugandans that have been trafficked out of the country and are being held in servitude in foreign countries.

Furthermore, a report of the Standing Committee of Parliament on Equal Opportunities on a working visit to Dubai, India and China 9^th-23^rd December 2012 found out that a recruitment company for instance is paid 2000 US Dollars, but the individuals they recruit are paid peanuts of about 200 US Dollars. The committee identified that many Ugandan women are stranded and are being used as sex slaves many of them living with HIV/AIDS and in poor living conditions among others. The committee consequently made many recommendations to government, but four years down the road, the Ugandan government has only been able to repatriate about 20 Ugandan females.

A list of recommendations and findings were made and among them are; government streamlines the employment procedures between recruitment agencies and Ugandans taken abroad for employment opportunities, government sets a rehabilitation centers for victims of trafficking, government carries out an investigation into the allegations that there are people funding state house for economic gain in promotion of hum trafficking, prostitution and sexual slavery, but we are worried that none of these seem to have been implemented by the government and if any, let there be evidence produced.

Whereas we do appreciate the effort that government and other development partners have put in place to enhance the livelihoods of women and youth, we are concerned about the unanswered questions surrounding the debacle facing youth and women who go for over sea’s employment. And whereas the government has taken significant steps to avert this labour challenge, we are worried that there could be individuals still trafficking people to overseas countries.

Although we are too much concerned about the current labour and employment challenges facing women and youth overseas, we are also concerned about the labour situation domestically. Much as we do acknowledge that there are laws and policies that tend to regulate and govern issues of employment and labour, human rights and justice among others, we are concerned that none of them seems to tackle specifically issues of foreign labour exploitation which issue has become an epidemic to those who go out of the country.

What puzzles us most is how possible it is that a country that has Interpol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Internal Affairs (Immigration Department) which institutions are meant to work closely with Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development to ascertain the authenticity of the jobs and travel documents of the people leaving the country cannot establish the reality. We also wonder how the recruitment companies are able to get passports for their clients without the clients presenting themselves to the immigration authorities and we also question how Interpol gives certificates of no criminal record to these people recruited without doing thorough investigation into the matter. We are suspicious that there could be internal dealings within the key institutions involved and if these kind of occurrences continue, we ponder and ask, how safe are we from terrorist attacks since this style of doing things not only jeopardizes our security, but also puts the lives of many Ugandans at stake.

In lieu of the above, and as part of the process leading up to the celebration of the International Youth Day under the theme: “eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable production and consumptions”, we would like to reiterate that whereas there are a lot many  things to celebrate, there is a lot more desired and wouldn’t warrant much celebration. Among those very critical and demanding things are human trafficking, sex exploitation of youth and women, increased youth unemployment, dangerous working conditions among others.

Therefore Transformative Leaders Network- Africa (TRANET-AFRICA) through  the Youth Consortium on Labour Justice joined by the public and media have today gathered here to launch a Campaign Dubbed, “Return Enslaved Ugandan Girls,” whose major intention is first and forest most to create awareness about the ills facing the current labour exportation business, highlighting the dangers and risks involved in participating in foreign labour and to cause government to institute legal and policy reforms so as to make the foreign labour exportation business streamlined, clear and safe for the beneficiaries especially women and youth.

We note with concern that the current employment and labour debacle in and outside the country is a major stumbling block if Uganda is to achieve Sustainable Development Goal number eight (decent work and economic growth) since Sexual harassment and enslavement, labour exploitation, torture, murder and intimidation of women in Uganda and those who leave for overseas jobs has been existent in the past, continues to escalate and will continue to cost lives of women and men.

We are utterly worried that unless the government of Uganda pulls up the socks and works steadfast to come to the rescue of these young men and women and institute key policy and legal reforms, it could cost the country a valuable resource in the trapped victims and their families shall continue to be hapless and languish in a state of quagmire.

KEY IMMEDIATE DEMANDS

We therefore, having established the above challenges, propose that

1.      Government comes out and pronounces itself on this matter by telling the public what is going on, where, when by who and why and we demand that justice for the affected persons/ returnees be upheld and those responsible be brought to book

2.      a commission of inquiry be set up to conduct deeper and concrete investigations into the gross allegations raised by the returnees and affected people and ascertain if there was  misconduct either on the side of the recruitment firms, the recruited and the employers overseas and this report should be made available within three months from now to inform further action.

3.      In the meantime, government should work closely with the foreign missions to establish those affected and fast truck their repatriating the girls and men  affected and stranded in the overseas countries

4.      Institute and put in place legal and policy labour and employment reforms specifically especially the national employment and labour policy

5.      a legal team instituted to examine the current labour and trafficking laws and enact an act of parliament regulating exportation of labour and that shall subsequently put in place an employment and labour authority/ commission that shall handle issues related to employment, labour and oversee/ monitor issues related to labour in and outside the country and to work closely with private recruitment firms, Interpol, foreign affairs ministry, ministry of foreign affairs among others to ensure that the same situation does not repeat itself. The same authority should be able to handle employment and labour policy reforms issues.

6.      We also demand for setting up of either an independent rehabilitation center or a sub center be established in Butabika referral hospital.

7.      FastTrack the implementation of the demands raised in the Youth Manifesto 2016-2021

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

a)      Government should strengthen the relationship between Interpol, Foreign Missions, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development and the Immigration and departure points such as Entebbe Airport and borders; Malaba, Busia, Lwakaka, Arua/ Nebbi among others which are used as key exit and entry pints for human traffickers and the victims.

b)      FastTrack implementation of local solutions that shall enhance creation of decent jobs, create favorable working conditions and rehabilitation of victims of unfavorable work conditions in collaboration with private and civil society institutions.

c)       There is need to  put in place stringent checks and balances for advertising of the overseas jobs since the current mode and  style of advertisement is persuasive yet not telling the truth about the infidel that is decaying the foreign labour market

d)     Institute a framework that enables registration of companies and business names and acquisition of trade licenses, copyright and patents free for youth led startups and initiatives and the public in general. This is so because the process of acquisition and formalization of businesses, copyrights and patents is expensive and tedious yet most young people do not have that much money, but with brilliant ideas. Consequently, there is also need to create a three year tax free holiday for youth led and indigenous ventures and businesses as a way of boosting local investments and encouraging young people to pursue self-employment and job creation rather than seeking. This approach shall go a long way in enabling many companies and businesses to be formalized and hence Uganda Revenue Authority shall find an advantage to collect taxes when most of these businesses have grown and expanded. This way, the tax base of the country shall expand and many jobs shall be created which shall ultimately reduce youth unemployment, improve social economic livelihoods and standards of the youth and purchasing power which is currently almost none existent.  If this is implemented, it shall boost SMEs development which in the case of Singapore was very instrumental in growing it from a low income country to among the world’s biggest economies. Therefore, Uganda stands a better chance to achieve vision 2040 and the sustainable development goals (eradicate poverty, zero hunger, decent work and economic growth among others)

e)      There is need to redesign the youth livelihoods programme to cater for individual businesses and companies and increase the number of beneficiaries with the assessment and funds acquisition criteria and process shortened and also fast ruck the implementation of the women’s enterprise fund.  Whilst doing that, the Community Development Officers should be removed from being signatories to the bank accounts of the youth groups since they embezzle money or ask for financial favors before Okaying financial transactions. This cripples decisions making processes and implementation process for the youth groups which in turn impedes proper growth of the ventures hence a contributing factor to the downfall of the ventures. If this is implemented, it will help increase the number of youth led businesses.

f)       Government sets aside funds to help private institutions NGO.s and individuals involved in skills, enterprise and financial literacy and management capacity building so as to create a multi stakeholder approach to eliminate poverty and curb unemployment. These funds should not be accessed as conditional funds through the local government, but accessed through the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development.

g)      Government institutes checks and balances for the private sector companies and multinational corporations to establish compliance or none compliance with the laws and policies relating to employment and labour so as to ensure a conducive and favorable working conditions and environments within the country which will also reduce on the tendency of youth flooding out in the hope of finding well-paying and fast earning jobs specifically, there is need to set aside a law/ policy that mandates multinational corporations to gazette certain positions especially at managerial and supervisory levels to indigenous Ugandans just like it is the case in Rwanda

h)     There is need to streamline the closer working relationship between Private Sector Foundation, Uganda Investments Authority, Uganda Exports Promotions Board and Enterprise Uganda among others to streamline easy management of private sector development in Uganda

i)        Enhance sensitization of employees and employers on the policy, rights and responsibilities of each of them and their legal obligations to each other to reduce on the violation of the rights of workers and employers.

CONCLUSION;

We appreciate the steps that government has put in place to avert this situation and we are much willing to collaborate with government to bring on board key alternatives that could be pursued to mitigate the issue of youth unemployment.

Whereas we do note that some of these demands/ recommendations put in place come in handy with budget implications, we also note that setting up an authority shall create employment opportunities for some people who shall consequently contribute to the tax base and support five dependents and or do some investments that could indirectly contribute to the tax base of the country.

Lastly, but not least, we call upon development partners to support this course and also call upon the media to help propagate this message and for those who are able, we request you to give us airtime on radio and television so that we can have a broader discourse on the matter at hand.

Our country, our girls, our men. End Human Trafficking now! Return Enslaved Ugandan Girls, they matter!

ABOUT THE YOUTH CONSORTIUM ON LABOUR JUSTICE (YOCOLAJ)

The YOUTH Consortium labor justice is a consortium of youth led and youth focused institutions whose aim is to pursue issues of workers’ rights, favorable employment and working conditions and to advocate for legal and policy reforms and conduct research on employment and labour matters to inform policy. The Youth Coalition on Labour Justice is hosted and Coordinated at the Transformative Leaders Network- Africa (TRANET_AFRICA) Secretariat in Ntinda. The Following Organizations are founding members to the Coalition. Transformative Leaders Network- Africa  Students for Global Democracy- Uganda Chapter (SGD), United Religions Initiative (URI), Women Focus Uganda, Centre for Policy Research and participatory development (CEPARD), Uganda Youth Alliance for Family Planning and Adolescent Health (UYAFPAH) and united citizen’s child support organization Uganda (UCCSOU)