| dc.description.abstract | ‘No one undertakes to leave the country of their birth for no reason; separating from the people and places they love, the influence of education, culture, and the force of habit all make the decision to relocate a difficult one.’ Labour migration is not always defined by poor, unskilled immigrants. However, this paper will focus mainly on the unskilled labour group who rely on the efficiency of the labour laws to thrive outside their country, Uganda. This study evaluates the contribution of Uganda to the labour export trade given that the trade has contributed immensely to the economy with over seven billion in revenue. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics estimates the population of Ugandans to be at about forty-five million people. Uganda is a struggling economy that was further affected by the COVID-19 pandemic which increased the unemployment rates and so the poverty levels. Therefore, many youths are not benefitting from the employment market with the unemployment rate being at 2.9 percent as of 2022. The labour export industry has thus been helpful in that it has reduced the number of the unemployed lobbying for jobs within the country. Uganda Bureau of Statistic estimates that over 100,000 Ugandan workers are migrant workers in the Middle East. Labour migration, if well managed can be good. It can help the government ease unemployment, and help citizens get jobs which would improve on their livelihoods and so contribute to the development of the individuals, their communities and the country as a whole. Despite its benefits, there have been concerns as to the implementation of the labour export law in the trade. It must therefore be monitored to eliminate the existing challenges such as trafficking, violations of the rights of workers (human rights violations), illegal recruiters. Many youths have been victims of trafficking to the middle east under poorly regulated externalisation of labour company schemes. The law’s contribution to the protections in the labour externalisation market would be to provide a foundation and enforceability for monitoring the labour conditions of these thousands of migrant workers, which can be achieved by a well-coordinated system. | en_US |
