Ugandan Labor Exporters Face Arrest for Illegally Withholding Passports

 The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced a probe into labour exporters allegedly withholding passports of applicants whom they have failed to secure jobs.

The ministry through the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) said it has received numerous complaints from Ugandans whose passports are being withheld by labour exporters for months or years.

DCIC which is headed by Maj Gen Apollo Kasiita-Gowa says more than 2,000 passports are in the hands of labour exporters and have not allowed their owners to access them despite failing to secure for them employment.

According to Lydia Arithea Nakiwala, the deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a probe with intent to arrest and prosecute all labour exporters illegally holding passports has been launched.

Nakiwala explained that a passport is a government and personal document which isn’t supposed to be in the hands of a third party. She said that they had earlier warned the labour exporters but they have not heeded.

“Earlier on we had talked about labour companies holding people’s passports. We urged them to return the passports to their owners as soon as possible. It is not acceptable to hold someone’s passport and we shall now take it up to the law,” Nakiwala said.

Labour exporters often pick up youth mostly females desperate for jobs from various parts of the country and apply for their passports and travel Visas. The labourers pay back the costs involved once they arrive for domestic employment in Saudi Arabia. Labour exporters make sure that the first month or two are used to clear the expenses they incurred in the recruitment process.

One former member of the now-split Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA), explained on condition of anonymity because his company is among those illegally holding passports that they invest a lot of money in processing passports with the hope of immediately securing jobs for their clients but sometimes things do not go as planned.

“When jobs are not promptly secured, we cannot just hand over the passports to owners for free. Imagine I have paid Shs250,000 for each of the 200 external employment seekers to get their passports. In the end, I only secure jobs for about 100. If I give back 100 passports to people who have not got the jobs without them refunding my 250,000 shillings, I will have lost 25 million shillings,” a former UAERA member explained.

Ganaafa Ali, who is currently in Saudi Arabia said many of his colleagues could not afford 250,000 Shillings for processing passports and Visa money but they were helped by companies and they paid back. “Even me I have people I have helped to bring to Saudi Arabia by sending them money but I made sure they paid me back in their first two months. It is a common practice that companies or individuals process passports and Visa for people coming to work here (Saudi Arabia) and they pay back,” Ganaafa said.

Some labour exporters have gone to the extent of abandoning the passports of their clients at the Saudi Arabia embassy after failing to secure jobs. The Saudi Arabia embassy has returned over 100 passports to DCIC. Whoever was taken to the Saudi Arabian embassy to process a Visa and did not go for employment has been asked to crosscheck with the office of the deputy Spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.