A parliamentary report documented 48 deaths of Ugandans in the Middle
East since January 2017 - 34 by committing suicide. Human rights
activists urge bilateral agreements to better protect nationals from
exploitation. FOTOSEARCH
Ugandan domestic worker Shahira begged her employer in Oman to
let her go home, after he sexually harassed her and his wives spat at
her and threw soiled nappies and water at her.
But her pleas only triggered further brutality.
“He
was holding a knife ... He threw it,” she told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, demonstrating how she ducked to avoid the blade as it flew
towards her.
“It cut me here,” said the 23-year-old, who declined to give her real name, pointing to scars on her wrists.
Shahira
is one of a growing number of Ugandans returning home from Oman with
tales of abuse, such as employers confiscating their passports and
phones, denying them food and working long hours without receiving their
full salaries.
Uganda banned its nationals in 2016 from working in Oman.
But
a parliamentary report documenting the deaths of 48 Ugandans in the
Middle East since January - 34 by committing suicide - shows the ban is
being flouted, sparking calls for more effective action.
“We’ve
never seen a big number like this committing suicide,” David Abala, one
of the parliamentarians who produced the report, told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation.
“Suicide means you have been going through a very difficult time. Life has not been bearable, the only hope is to die.”
'Jobs, jobs, jobs'
Labour minister Janat Mukwaya rejected the figure and said only five people had died, according to local media reports.
Oman’s foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.
Shahira’s
experience illustrates the challenge of cracking down on international
trafficking networks in Uganda, as increasing numbers of people are
migrating to find employment.
Some 80,000 Ugandans work
in the Middle East, according to the Uganda Association of External
Recruitment Agencies, an umbrella body of licensed firms.
As
Asia has increased domestic worker protections and salary requirements,
recruiters are turning to East Africa, where rules are weaker and
people will accept less pay, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.
Shahira was recruited through a friend of her uncle, who introduced her to four men in an office in downtown Kampala.
They
promised her a job in a restaurant in Oman, earning Ush1 million ($275)
a month. She believed the company was legitimate after they showed her
some certificates and only realised she had been duped when she reached
Oman.
'You’re my slave'
Shahira said she slept on a tiny mattress on the floor and got up at 4am each day to work in two different wives’ houses.
Her
skin peeled off from laying down paving stones in the searing heat, she
said, and her employer threw a bucket of used sanitary pads and nappies
at her when she complained.
Even the grandchildren, aged four and nine, were abusive.
“When you’re sleeping they would throw things at you and pour water on your body,” she said.
When
Shahira asked her employer to release her before the end of the
two-year contract she was forced to sign on arrival in Oman, he said she
would have to refund him for her visa and fees paid to the recruitment
agency.
“(He said:) ‘I gave them their money, they sold
you to me. You’re my slave, you’re going to work here as my slave’,”
she said, from her family home in a Kampala slum where she has lived
since she was repatriated in July.
“I felt like: ‘I am
going to die here’... I suffered so much,” she said, adding that her
employer confiscated her phone so her family did not know where she was.
Visa-sponsorship rules
About
half of Oman’s population of 4 million people are foreigners, with more
than 100,000 migrant women working as domestics, mostly from Asian
countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and India.
Visa-sponsorship rules in Oman, known as the kafala system
- used in several Gulf Arab countries - mean migrant workers cannot
change jobs without their employer’s consent and can be charged with
absconding if they flee.
Campaigners want Uganda to
follow Asia’s example and sign agreements with Gulf states, which would
supersede existing labour laws, to better protect its nationals from
exploitation.
“It should require the government to
provide assistance to workers when they are facing abusive situations
(and) ensure that there’s good oversight of recruitment agencies before
they leave,” said HRW’s Rothna Begum, a women’s rights researcher.
Migrants should get information about their job and their contractual rights before they get on the plane, she said.
Labour ministry official Milton Turyasima said Uganda has drafted agreements with several Gulf countries.
“We wanted to start negotiations but we have not,” he said.
“We’ve been trying to engage them.”
Shahira was only able to return home after her employer’s daughter persuaded him to release her.
Although she needs medical treatment for back and chest injuries from working in Oman, she is looking for another job.
"I'm
just praying so much that I get something good that I can do. Maybe a
chance to go abroad - but not to the Middle East," she said.
-Reporting by Amy Fallon, Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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