After over four months of detention in Jordan prison illegally, Mary Lydia Nakaweesi and Faith Kwagala returned to Uganda.
The two girls arrived in the country on the Ethiopian Airlines return flight funded by the Muko Protection Agency (MPA) in coordination with the Ugandan government through the Ministry of Labour. Upon arrival, they looked relieved to be home, despite evident signs of stress.
According to Mary Lydia Nakaweesi, she left Uganda to work in Jordan on 5th February 2024 and only worked for just two months due to a violation of her rights, for resistance she was denied the right to get food, rest, not even allowing her to talk to the family, overworking, little and delay of payments among others which forced her to kindly request the boss to forward her to the company’s office.
“My boss insisted, but the following day, God did it for me because they had caught her grandson at the school. So when they stepped out of the house, I started the escape plans. It was around midnight when I escaped through the kitchen; however, I can’t even tell the whole story, but all in all, it has been God for my survival,” Nakaweesi explained.
She, therefore, lauds the Muko protection agency together with the hardworking team in Jordan, only identified as Melissa, Loren, Darla, and Daniel, who have enabled them back home.
“I am so glad that I am finally home; it has not been easy, but because of God’s will and Marcy, I am back in my motherland with the help of the Muko protection agency together with the team in Jordan,” she said.
However, Faith Kwagala, who also left Uganda in January 2024 to Jordan for work as a housemaid, was caught by the police after she escaped from her boss’s house in May.
“After I had worked for only two months and 15 days, I started feeling some pain in the chest, so my boss decided to return me back home, which by then I took as a disservice to myself. So when I tried to escape from the house, then the police caught me, and I was detained in prison from May until today when I have been returned home,” she explained.
Kwagala also highlighted that many girls from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, and other African countries are facing tremendous difficulties abroad, and even others lost hope of returning to their respective motherlands.
Najimeddin Hisham Najim, the owner of Muko Protection Agency noted that both Nakaweesi and Kwagala were detained in prison for over four months without any charge.
“They had nowhere to go because even their traveling documents, including the passports, were confiscated, and their rights were also abused, which caused them to be tortured mentally,” he narrated.
Najim lauds the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Labour, which facilitated the issuing of the travel documents for both Nakaweesi and Kwagala – the Ugandan laborers who have been detained in Jordan prison illegally.
In addition, he noted that based on the information from Nakaweesi and Kwagala, many Ugandan girls are still stuck in Jordan prison illegally and they hope to do the needful for their repatriation process.
Pamela Besigye, the supervisor at Muko Protection Agency appealed to all recruitment companies to stop human trafficking and also make a continuous follow-up to all the members that they have allocated to not only Arab countries but also in other parts of the world in a way of limiting human rights violations.
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