By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
The State Minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Davinia Esther Anyakun, has warned Ugandans against falling victim to individuals and tour companies illegally facilitating labour export abroad.
Anyakun said some tour and travel companies are extorting money from Ugandans under the guise of securing employment opportunities overseas, yet they are not legally mandated to engage in labour externalisation.
“Tour companies are not legally mandated to take Ugandans abroad to work,” Anyakun said on Thursday.
She noted that the ministry has observed an increase in tour and travel companies advertising overseas job opportunities through social media platforms and television, warning that such firms are not licensed to recruit workers for employment abroad.
“Of late, there are many tour and travel companies advertising through social media platforms and also televisions. Others have extorted money from many youths and taken them abroad as they purport to offer jobs,” she said threatening to deregister firms found involved in labour export.
Anyakun emphasised that the ministry only licenses companies registered to export labour and warned Ugandans to verify the authenticity of recruitment agencies before making any payments.
“There are many agents out there claiming to be taking Ugandans abroad to work. The ministry does not license individuals to take people abroad to work. Only companies that are licensed,” she said.
Uganda currently has 246 companies licensed to conduct external labour recruitment. The minister advised Ugandans seeking employment abroad, commonly referred to as kyeyo, to use only authorised firms to ensure proper monitoring and protection.
She urged prospective migrant workers to always obtain receipts for payments made to licensed companies, sign contracts and warned that domestic worker placements should not attract recruitment fees. She added that domestic migrant workers are required to undergo a mandatory 14-day pre-departure orientation at government-recognised training centres.
“Your visa should be a working or employment visa. If the company indicates a visit or tourist visa, do not accept it,” Anyakun said.
According to the ministry, Uganda continues to register a steady increase in migrant workers due to limited employment opportunities locally. An estimated 600,000 to 700,000 people join the labour force annually, with youth accounting for about 95 per cent of new entrants. Government earned Shs34.2b from labour externalisation in 2025.
Most Ugandan migrant workers are employed in Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar, among others that have bilateral labour agreements with Uganda.
However, the minister noted that cases of human trafficking, exploitation, misinformation and unsafe migration practices persist, largely driven by unlicensed recruitment agents.
“Evidence has shown that unregulated labour migration generates human trafficking and exposes workers to serious risks,” Anyakun said.
She attributed many of the challenges to limited public awareness, use of unlicensed agents and failure by job seekers to follow established migration procedures.
To address the challenges, the ministry has launched a public awareness campaign on safe labour migration under the theme Travel Safe, Stay Safe. The campaign aims to educate and protect Ugandans by ensuring that accurate, government-approved information on labour migration reaches the public.
