The plight of Ugandans shipped to the Middle East has intermittently been in the news for several years now. The most common headlines on the subject are Ugandans being tortured by their employers abroad, having their pay withheld by recruiting agencies, dying from lack of treatment and bodies rarely repatriated home. The most recent case regarding the subject was that of Ms Judith Nakintu. A company recruited her to work as a housemaid abroad only to have her kidney extracted without her consent and later abandoned by the recruiting agency without the necessary treatment, resulting in permanent disfigurement. Notwithstanding such disconcerting stories dominating the news in Uganda, many youths still flock to offices of different recruitment agencies seeking to leave the country in pursuit of opportunity.

A significant number of people have left Uganda under the guise of going to foreign nations to attend meetings, visit relatives, tour or even pursue degrees, only for them to overstay their visas by decades. Ugandans continue to leave the country in search of prosperity. They are known to go to any country that seems to offer a prospect to success, whether in Africa, Asia, Europe, or the Americas. In the quest for opportunities, Ugandans have demonstrated unquestionable willingness to risk being enslaved, brave sleeping in trenches, endure unfamiliar weather; ignore racial discrimination, and work long hours under life-threatening conditions. Indeed, every Ugandan who has worked abroad, especially in blue-collar employment, has a story of their own to tell. In Uganda, these young people are perceived as indolent, entitled and deliberately unproductive. Yet they are willing to risk so much and endure thye afflictions of a foreign land. All in hope for a better life. But from whence do these young people summon this stout-heartedness?

"One of the most critical interventions that the Government can undertake is to put in place programs that support youth entrepreneurs, like offering tax holidays to young entrepreneurs who have managed to grow their businesses to a particular level. Another initiative can be offering more affordable credit facilities to young entrepreneurs who want to venture into business."

In a country enveloped by acute poverty, poor infrastructure, soaring unemployment rates and institutionalised nepotism, discrimination and corruption, the idea of seeking greener pastures is not unfathomable. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor ranks Uganda as one of the countries with a high entrepreneurship initiative, with about 64% of Ugandans being at a certain stage of entrepreneurship activity. High business failure rates accompany the high number of business start-ups due to the difficulty of doing business in Uganda. These businesses are usually suffocated by high costs of borrowing, excessive taxes, high costs of production and government policy favouring foreign direct investment over local investment. This set of circumstances drives youths to look elsewhere for opportunity. Entangled in a cycle of poverty, scarcity and obscurity, these young people seek solutions to their social condition in foreign countries. Therefore, the choice to leave Uganda and work abroad is, for the most part, motivated by push factors rather than pull factors. The perspective that there is greater opportunity for prosperity elsewhere than here is confirmed by the numerous futile attempts to create better living standards in Uganda through entrepreneurship or employment, while those who have trodden foreign cities live like the elite.

The success of this labour emigration can be measured from the ever-increasing remittances from abroad that have reached 2.8% of Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product. At the household level, these remittances have been pivotal in alleviating poverty and improving standards of living, while at a national level, they have improved purchasing power and helped in stabilizing the value of the shilling. While there are benefits to labour emigration, the push factors that motivate people to leave Uganda with such haste need to be addressed. Increased reliance on opportunities created in other countries creates a level of dependency of the Ugandan society on foreign countries. It continues to reinforce the outward-looking mentality of our people when it comes to problem-solving. Collective effort must be directed towards improving the standards of living of Ugandans and the protection of their rights and freedoms through reliance on local synergies. A government must take significant strides to make it safer and more profitable for its citizens to stay and work in their country because it is the only place that can genuinely guarantee their safety and welfare. This can be done by making it easier and safer to do business in Uganda, especially by easing businesses' registration and curbing the exorbitant taxes that choke businesses. This can be augmented by liberalizing and standardizing business regulations to perfect business competition and support local investment.

Riding on the entrepreneurial initiative of Ugandans, it is somewhat easy for the government to reverse the youth’s appetite for foreign countries by facilitating the economic productivity of these young people. One of the most critical interventions that the Government can undertake is to put in place programs that support youth entrepreneurs, like offering tax holidays to young entrepreneurs who have managed to grow their businesses to a particular level. Another initiative can be offering more affordable credit facilities to young entrepreneurs who want to venture into business. If only entry into business can be simplified and the existing bottlenecks that make it difficult to sustain businesses can be removed, the outward-looking mentality of Ugandan youth can be gradually broken. There is an urgent need for government to prioritize the creation of opportunities in the different sectors of the economy so that the exported labour can be absorbed in the different sectors of the Ugandan economy. This, however, can only be achieved by putting Ugandans at the centre of economic growth initiatives instead of the current prominence of foreign direct investment.

Solving the current problems that have bedevilled labour export in Uganda must involve holding the persons responsible for horrendous acts like extraction of human organs, confiscation of payment of the labourers exported, deprivation of medical treatment to migrants. The common response has been suing companies by the victims of these crimes however, there is a need to lift the corporate veil and hold the individuals responsible for these human rights violations accountable. This will be a constant reminder to those acting on behalf of labour exporting companies not to compromise the rights of their clients to maximize profit. One of the most glaring shortfalls in holding perpetrators of injustices in the labour export business is that while Ugandan perpetrators are sometimes held accountable for their crimes, their foreign accomplices are usually ignored. A significant number of the Ugandans exported to work in the Middle East are subjected to inhumane treatment and sexual harassment at the hands of their employers, yet these injustices continue to go unresolved. This is due to the lack of sufficient monitoring by the labour export companies and the insufficient government liaison with countries hosting a significant number of Ugandan casual workers. The Government must protect the rights of its citizen both within Uganda and without. Uganda should continuously engage with the foreign governments to ensure that the gross violations against Ugandans are accounted for.

In the short term, Ugandan authorities should work towards stricter enforcement of labour laws within recruiting agencies. The long-term solution to this hasty labour export borne out of desperation is improving the profitability and inclusiveness of the Ugandan economy.