Over 10 Ugandan migrant workers who were deported from Saudi Arabia were seen stuck and stranded at Entebbe airport after they had failed to raise transportation funds.
Although the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development’s public relations officer, Joshua Kyalimpa, confirmed their intervention in the integration of the deportees, none of the ministry officials cared about the deportees’ next movement after they had reached the airport.
The deportees landed at the Entebbe International Airport at around 08 00 pm by Air Arabia; however, some of them didn’t have relatives to welcome them due to limited access interms communication.
Some of the deportees who spoke to our reporter but did not want their names exposed narrated that most of them had no money or phones, and some of their personal belongings were confiscated when they were put in deportation centers in Saudi Arabia.
“So how will we pay for our transportation charges or accommodations when we cannot even contact our relatives,” they said.
One identified as Shakirah said that her former boss dumped her on the streets in Saudi Arabia because she had demanded payment of her salary arrears for three months.
“After I had insisted, my employer drove me out of his home and left me on the street. I didn’t know anybody or even where I was. So later I was arrested by the police where I spent 26 days in detention and another two months in the deportation center until now when I have been deported,” she explained.
In addition, she narrated that they had been denied from taking food for two days, they had limited resources in terms of funds for transport and access to their relatives, and therefore asked for the government and other organizations’ intervention.
Another deportee who didn’t expose her identity said that it is sad that she was tortured abroad and her employer did not pay her salary arrears of three months.
The deportees and those returning from work decry poor working conditions, including long working hours, non-payment, harsh and rude employers, and sickness, among other reasons, as some of the reasons they could have failed to complete their contracts in Saudi Arabia.
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