KAMPALA, UGANDA: Government through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development has suspended at least 20 external labour recruitment companies citing continued forgery and extortion whilst executing their operations.
According to Gender Minister Betty Amongi, the companies blacklisted are being punished for failure to follow the law while executing their duties and have therefore been stopped from operating further with immediate effect.
Amongi revealed this while presenting the performance progress report for the ministry saying some companies on the list of those suspended had their licenses terminated over forging Covid-19 PCR tests while others were suspended for illegally charging prospective recruits without securing jobs for them.
Others, she said were punished for engaging in trafficking and other offences including presenting fake job orders to the regulator.
The list of the recruitment firms suspended include Middle East Consultants Ltd, The Eagles Supervision Ltd, which the Minister stressed had accumulated claims of refund/extortion.
Other companies are; Al-Saud Agency Ltd, Fly International Jobs (U) Ltd and Top Notch Recruitment Services Ltd – these being suspended for forging renewal documents. The minister said Al-Saud Agency Ltd and Top Notch Recruitment Services Ltd were previously suspended for submitting forged tax clearance certificates.
Amongi said Forbes Enterprises Limited also on the list has had its contract terminated for engaging in gross human trafficking and forgery while Al sultaan recruitment company Ltd has had its contract canceled for forging Covid-19 PCR test certificates and its staff involvement in human trafficking.
Golden Star Recruitment Agencies Ltd was sanctioned for presenting fake clearance documents at the Airport.
Hala Uganda Rec Limited, Perla Recruitment Agency Ltd. Pearl of Makka International Ltd, Nile Treasure Gate Company Al-Madinah Agency Limited, Cornell Recruitment Center Ugenda Limited and Tempcro International Limited all had their contracts terminated for forging training reports.
“The Ministry has tightened the regulation of the licensed recruitment firms and over the last six months, 20 non-compliant Private Recruitment Agencies and one Pre-departure orientation training institution have been suspended,” Amongi.
She explained that her ministry continues to put in place systems that guarantee decent, safe and secure jobs for Ugandans abroad.
Last week, Amongi led a delegation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a bilateral meeting with her counterpart of UAE (Minister for Human Resources and Emiratization) to operationalize the 2019 government of Uganda/UAE Memorandum of Understanding on labour matters.
She said cabinet cleared the deployment of labour attaches to our missions abroad in countries that attract the highest number of migrant workers to strengthen supervision, monitoring and consular services support to Ugandans in diaspora.
In June this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs released a report showing a total of 214 cases of trafficking in persons registered from January to December 2020 compared to the 252 cases in 2019, which indicated a decrease of 15.1 percent.
As of June, 14, a total of 216 recruitment agencies were licensed by the Internal Affairs Ministry.
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