Heading to Dubai for work, a Ugandan girl’s hope for brighter future

Looking into her eyes I could tell she was expectant of something and yet unsure.

Young, energetic and ebullient, wearing a T-shirt like the other about 30 something young people, all of them heading in one direction to look for work.

“Where are you heading to?” I asked her as she sat nervously to my left, and I could tell she was flying for the first time. We were on the flight from Entebbe Airport in Uganda, heading to Kigali for a stop then to Addis Ababa. Maggie would then catch a flight to Dubai, while I catch one to Accra.

“I am going to Dubai to work as a cleaner,” she said.

“Ever heard about how they treat foreign workers in those places?” I asked.

This time I could see her lips curl as she tries to speak, and her eyes reddened and welled up with tears. She managed to control herself from crying as she spoke.

“I have, but we have been recruited by a company and if anything happens to us, our families would hold them to account,” she told me.

Maggie, (not her real name) was one of 33 young Ugandan men and women heading to the UAE for jobs. There were 23 young men and 10 young women, and all of them were wearing T-shirts meant to both identify them and to obviously advertise the company that has recruited them for work in Dubai – Middle East Consultants, the name reads, complete with telephone numbers.

Maggie who is 25-years-old told me three of them, ladies, are going to work as cleaners, because they couldn’t afford to pay for better jobs. “Some who are able to pay higher fees, are going into better jobs. Three of us would be working as cleaners,” she said. Giving the impression that she was lucky to get through.

Maggie is the first child to her single mother. “There are three of us. All girls,” she said. “I don’t know where our father is – our mother is struggling to support us,” she revealed.

“I couldn’t go further in education and it’s hard to find a job in Uganda, I am going to work in Dubai so I can raise the money to support my family,” she said.

“How much did you pay to be recruited?” I asked Maggie.

“I paid five million Uganda shillings. I am also paying for my ticket.” She said, adding, “I have to borrow the money. I am going to work and pay back.” That is about $1,500.

Youthful and hopeful Maggie and her friends, are an example of how the cream of the continent’s youth, described as the future workforce of a continent that is generally young are being forced by circumstances in their home countries to move to places like the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to look for work.

But the records in these countries on how foreign workers are treated aren’t good. The reports are horrifying. Stories of inhumane treatment of young women who travel to these parts to seek greener pastures paint a dark picture of what situation might await Maggie and her friends from Uganda.

There was this story of a Saudi Arabian family that hung their Ethiopian maid from a hook and brutally beat her to pulp.

A Ghanaian nurse who was promised a job in a hospital was taken to Kuwait and sold as a maid. She was mistreated, until she was later rescued and returned to Ghana.

Emigration is a natural phenomena, but the rate at which young Africans are leaving the continent to look for work in the Arab world despite evidences of violence against some of them is an indictment on the leaders of the countries of Africa. Africa is not poor, there is enough on the continent to create jobs for many of the continent’s youth who are willing to work.

About 40 million of Africa’s youth make up 60 per cent of the continent’s unemployed. And the number of youth in Africa will double by 2045, according to the African Economic Outlook 2012.

Africa produces more than 60 metal and mineral products and is a major producer of several of the world’s most important minerals and metals including gold, platinum-group elements (PGEs), diamonds, uranium, manganese, chromium, nickel, bauxite and cobalt.

Platinum, coal, and phosphates are also mined on the continent.

Africa also holds about 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, including 40 per cent of gold, 60 per cent of cobalt and 90 per cent of the world’s Platinum-group metals (PGM) reserves – and some of the largest, and richest, mineral deposits in the world have been found in Africa.

There are also oil fields and fertile land for agriculture, which makes up almost 60 per cent of the continent’s GDP.

Harnessing these resources in a more responsible and productive manner is what would generate wealth and lead to job creation in Africa.

Maggie, is however hopeful, that she would be able to work as a cleaner in Dubai, pay up her debts and support her family, “Insha Allah, I will succeed,” she intoned.

By Emmanuel K Dogbevi

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