Last evening, Kyadondo East Member of Parliament, Hon. Muwada Nkunyingi spent a night on the streets of Dubai with several stranded Ugandans.
Nkunyingi, who is the shadow minister of Foreign Affairs arrived in Dubai after attending the recently concluded NUP Diaspora Conference in California where his party president, Bobi Wine real name Robert Kyagulanyi was the guest of honor.
According to Muwada, the majority of Ugandans claim they were defrauded by Uganda External recruitment companies, falsely promised jobs, and dropped on the streets of Dubai and UAE with short visas which many times expire before getting jobs.
“Each day of expired visa attracts heavy fines and renewing requires equal payment. These youths have no coin even for personal survival. It’s a tragedy,” said Muwada in a post on his official Facebook account.
“Some of these are stranded maids and claim they were chased by agents after arrival in UAE deceived of jobs and the same agents confiscate passports demanding a huge ransom to release passports,” he added.
He further disclosed that many stranded young girls with no alternative hope resort to prostitution as the only way of survival.
“The Uganda embassy claims it lacks the necessary resources to rescue these Ugandans and claims that many times it relies on well-wishers, and even for those in detention, the embassy claimed to largely rely on among others UAE government seasonal offers for stranded noncitizens plus seasonal UAE pardon which is mostly granted in Ramadhan and Eid times,” Muwada narrated in a post.
“We shall keep trying what we can in pursuing options but this obviously needs you and me and/or us as people,” he added.