The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Hon. Henry Tumukunde, has raised concern over gaps in government’s ability to monitor and protect Ugandans working abroad, saying more must be done to safeguard migrant workers after they leave the country.
Tumukunde said the country’s labour-export programme should not end with the recruitment and deployment of Ugandans, but must include adequate preparation, monitoring and mechanisms to assist workers once they arrive in destination countries.
He made the remarks while appearing before the Parliament Committee on Gender, Labour and Social Development chaired by Hon. Laura Kanushu, on Wednesday, 05 August 2026.
Tumukunde said Ugandans seeking employment abroad must be properly recruited and trained before departure, but government must also establish mechanisms to monitor their welfare once they are outside the country.
“How do you reach there?” Tumukunde asked, questioning how government can effectively monitor Ugandan workers in foreign countries when there is inadequate facilitation for officials expected to follow up on them.
He said Uganda has labour partnerships with other countries but questioned whether these arrangements were translating into adequate protection for migrant workers.
The minister said the Government needed to strengthen its systems for keeping records of Ugandans working abroad and ensuring that they can be located and assisted if they encounter problems.
He said Uganda should consider the importance of labour export in light of the money migrant workers send back home.
“I hope that you and the government should invest in training people, because you are getting quite a lot of remittances from these people,” Tumukunde told the committee.
The minister questioned why labour export was sometimes treated as a peripheral issue despite the significant contribution of migrant workers to Uganda’s economy.
He told the committee that about 5.5 million young people below the age of 30 are neither employed nor in education or training, warning that the figure could increase significantly in the coming years if the situation is not urgently addressed.
The minister also raised the issue of trafficking, saying the problem requires stronger controls involving several government institutions.
He said government would continue to play its role in addressing the weaknesses within the labour-export system and assured the committee that the Ministry would not ignore internal shortcomings.
Tumukunde also raised concern over inadequate funding, fragmented service delivery and weak oversight mechanisms that he said are undermining efforts to support Uganda’s most vulnerable people.
He said one of the major challenges he had identified was a failure to achieve genuine inclusiveness, particularly because resources allocated to vulnerable groups were often too limited to meet the needs of the intended beneficiaries.
“Are you really giving it enough time? Are you giving it enough coverage? Are you providing the appropriate budget that is supposed to take care of these very, very vulnerable people?” Tumukunde asked.
He also pointed to what he described as “technical fractures” in the system of service delivery, where funds from the gender ministry are sent to districts but are administered through structures under other government institutions.
He further criticised the limited resources available for political supervision, saying ministers and other political leaders are expected to monitor programmes across the country without adequate facilitation.
Hon. Richard Wanyama (NRM, Samia Bugwe Central County), however, challenged the ministry on funding, saying it had failed to absorb some of the funds allocated to it last year.
“Because last time you had Shs410 billion, but you spent Shs333 billion, so it will be very hard for you to ask for more money,” he said.
Wanyama also agreed with the minister about the frustrations faced by girls who go to work abroad, saying they are frequently cheated by labour recruitment companies.
Hon. Sowedi Kitanywa, MP for Busongora County North, asked the minister to lobby Cabinet for increased funding, saying members would support the ministry’s efforts.
“Fight more at Cabinet level to get more funding; we will support you here,” he said.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
