Uganda, Saudi Arabia renew labour export agreement

By Charles Katabalwa

30^th March 2023

Uganda and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have signed a new Bilateral Agreement aimed at resolving challenges faced by Ugandan domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia.

Since February 23^rd, 2023 when the older agreement expired, Uganda has been in negotiations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which culminated in the signing of the new agreement.

According to the Minister for Labour, Gender and Social Development, Betty Amongi, Uganda and Saudi Arabia have succeeded in a number of areas as far as the agreement for workers is concerned among others a mechanism for deliberating and resolving emerging issues on welfare and rights of the domestic workers.

Amongi further said that, salary structure should be maintained to avoid complaints that existed in the past years over unexplained salary deductions.

She further notes that, an employer wishing to transfer the services of an employee to another employer is obligated to inform the Ugandan recruitment company and Saudi recruitment Agencies before the transfer is implemented.

She also explained that the Saudi Arabian online recruitment system (MUSANED) will be integrated with Uganda’s External employment management system EEMIS.

This will strengthen migration data management, monitoring migrant workers as well as eliminating manual clearance of migrant workers.

The Minister emphasized that a joint committee for monitoring the implementation of the Bilateral Labour Agreement will be constituted within two months of signing.

In 2022, Uganda suspended a bilateral labour export agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over complaints of alleged continued mistreatment and torture of Ugandan migrant workers.

In 2017, the Ugandan government entered into a five-year labour agreement with Saudi Arabia aimed at promoting the welfare and rights of migrant workers.

Statistics from the ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development show that Saudi Arabia is the biggest labour externalization destination in the Middle East with over 150,000 Ugandans migrant workers.

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