The Ministry of internal affairs has asked Ugandans employed illegally in the UAE to benefit from a three months amnesty ending in October, that ensures their deportation.
This follows a deal between the Ugandan Embassy in the United Arab Emirates and the Immigration Department under the Ministry to issue certificates of identity to Ugandans without legal documents or whose passports were confiscated to travel back home.
According to Wanume Zaake Kibedi, the Ugandan Ambassador to the UAE, since amnesty was granted in August this year, only 1 percent of the 3 percent affected have turned to benefit from the program.
Wanume says it has been projected that out of the 100,000 Ugandans exported to the UAE for skilled and professional labor, only 5 percent are residing there illegally while the remaining 95 percent are operating legally.
“5 percent are the ones residing in the country illegally and stranded, of these, only 1.5 percent have turned up to the call of amnesty while 3.5 percent have not turned up, yet the amnesty expires end of this month,” he says
Wanume says of a total of 1,500 Ugandans who have shown up, 280 with passports were immediately repatriated in the first week of August, while 1,220 were detained at Dubai’s Al Awir Deportation Camp.
The last group to be returned from the UAE via FlyDubai and Air Arabia came on Monday, October 24, 2022.
Statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs reveal that up to 201,637 workers were deployed to the Middle East between 2016 to June 2021 through licensed companies.
However, of an estimated 60 Percent known to be employed in Saudi Arabia, most are trafficked and reportedly abused
