DUBAI, UAE: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has banned the issuance of 30-day Visit VISA to nationalities from Uganda and 20 other countries stopping them from travelling to Dubai whether for short business or holiday trips until further notice.
UAE in a notice issued last week said the new VISA restrictions announced were effected October 18, 2022 as the middle east country moves to curtail illegal migrants and curb down increasing criminality in their country.
The other affected countries include Ghana, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria, Liberia, Burundi, Republic of Guinea, Gambia, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Benin, Ivory Coast, Congo, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Comoros and the Dominican Republic.
“This is to inform you that we will not be posting 30 days visa applications for these nationalities effective today October 18, 2022,” the UAE notice reads in part.
“Any applications from the above-mentioned countries will be sent back or cancelled,” added the notice.
The notice was sent to UAE’s trade partners including travel agents.
According to UAE officials, the UAE decision came after it emerged that thousands of Africans use the 30-day visas to continue illegally staying in the modern country.
It should be noted on September 28th 2022, United Arab Emirates (UAE) government blacklisted Ugandans and Nigerians and announced that effective October 6, 2022, no Ugandan or Nigerian will be allowed into UAE without a certificate of good conduct and about 5,000 Dirham (Shs 5.3 million) on their bank account.
Recently, the UAE government offered free air tickets to all illegal migrants to return home. They were required to surrender to immigration authorities.
The UAE government deported over 600 Ugandans who had overstayed their welcome and had accumulated fines. The group was allegedly part of the over 1,000 Ugandans detained at Dubai Central Jail.
The source revealed that UAE was not happy with; “Ugandans and Nigerians who had turned into crooks, conning people and sleeping on streets.”
The government of Uganda collects about US$1.2bn (Shs 4.5 trillion) from Ugandans working abroad. The Middle East alone sends in about $600m (Shs 2.2 trillion) and $200m (Shs 762 billion) from UAE.
According to the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA), an umbrella of licenced agencies which are sourcing job opportunities for Ugandans from all over the world, 165,000 Ugandans work in the Middle East (2020), despite numerous cases of exploitative working conditions, sexual and other forms of abuse and human trafficking reported by Ugandan domestic and casual workers abroad.
Government has been under fire to protect Ugandans working abroad and streamline the labour export business.
Milton Turyasiima, Assistant Commissioner of Employment Services at the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development recently disclosed that Government had taken the first steps to identify measures to prevent human trafficking and exploitation such as developing the required regulations and pre-departure training for job seekers.
He said a monitoring and tracking system will further support all stakeholders in the sector to monitor and report on the human rights situation of Ugandan migrants abroad.
Uganda earns over $1bn a year from remittances.
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