Uganda has announced a ban on the recruitment and deployment of housemaids to Saudi Arabia.
The ban will remain until working conditions in Saudi Arabia are “deemed fitting,” the Ugandan government said.
A letter from the Ministry of Labour to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed disappointment that an agreement signed in July intended to stop human trafficking hadn’t worked.
The Ugandan government says it has gotten complaints of workers being treated inhumanely by their employers in Saudi Arabia, according to the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Welfare.
According to Uganda’s news site The Independent, the ban also comes after an audio recording was widely circulated this week on social media of Ugandans in Saudi Arabia who said they were being tortured and imprisoned.
Scores of Ugandan migrants have been arrested and deported from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations, and some Ugandans have died in confinement, such as Flora Ritah Nantezza who died in a Dubai jail.
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni recently returned from a two-day state visit to Saudi Arabia commending efforts to improve trade and investment relations between the two countries but making no mention of protections for migrant workers.
