The State minister for labour, employment and industrial relations Esther Anyakun Davinia has revealed that government is investigating how the Ugandan women shown in the a BBC Eye Investigation story, left the country and ended up in a Dubai sex trade ring as exposed by the BBC recently.
“Since the details of victims reported in the BBC story are not yet known, Government needs to be given reasonable time to investigate this matter and establish how those Ugandan women left Uganda and ended up in sex trade” she said.
She added, “These serious crimes require thorough investigation to identify the perpetrators. We are closely working with Ministries of Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs to combat trafficking of Ugandans to U.A.E and other Middle East countries”.
Min Anyakun who made the remarks while addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Wednesday, described the plight of youthful Ugandans being exploited sexually by prostitution rings in Dubai as a regrettable incident if the allegations are found to be true as reported by BBC.
The minister was delivering government’s response to the BBC investigative story that exposed Ugandan Abbey Mwesigwa, as the leader of the sex trafficking ring exploiting Uganda women in Dubai.
“We need to delink externalization of labour from trafficking in persons. Abbey Mwesigwa, who is mentioned as the ringleader is not known by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development…….. I hope after UAE Authorities and the Uganda government have completed the investigations, the culprit, a one Abbey Mwesigwa will be brought to book” she said.
Min Anyakun said Government suspects that the Ugandans mentioned in the news story are either unemployed or have overstayed visas.
“I would like to inform you that there are many Ugandans who travel to the United Arab Emirates on visit visas with a hope that they will secure employment when there. These are the people that find themselves with overstay visas and no employment. Some go on their own while others are trafficked by agents” she said.
Min Anyakun noted that trafficking in persons is a multi-billion-dollar business globally and requires concerted efforts between countries to be controlled.
She further said government didn’t have any travel records of the said girls in the story since the Ministry put in place robust mechanisms to accredit foreign recruitment agencies in UAE that recruit Ugandan migrant workers noting that only 256 companies have been licensed to source and formally place Ugandans to work abroad to date.
“It is probable that the victims reported in the BBC story are Ugandan women who were trafficked by agents or irregularly externalized to Dubai. It is highly unlikely for Ugandan migrant workers who have gone through the Ministry’s formal labour externalization processes as established to end up in the kind of exploitation that was reported by the BBC” she said.
Min Anyakun blamed the rising numbers of youths seeking employment abroad on the few job opportunities in the country which can’t accommodate the number of Ugandans joining the labour market
“Between 600,000 to 700,000 Ugandans enter the labour market annually, with over 95% of them being youths. As a result, a significant proportion of the workforce, particularly youths remain unemployed and underemployed” she said.
Anyakun noted that a number of measures have been taken to improve externalization of labour programme which include revision of the law, signing of the Bilateral Labour Agreements, development of the Online System for Management of External Employment and establishment of a call centre.
Other measures include Community Engagements, Development and implementation of a Migrant welfare programme/system and established a Migrant resource centre
Between December 2021 to 30th June 2025, the Ministry collected Contribution to Non-Tax Revenue (NTR) of UGX 34.2 billion from migrant workers through license application fees, license fees, foreign job attestation fees, local job order fees, fines for late renewal of a license and training centre accreditation fees.
