By Patrick Onyango
March 1, 2004
|
PARLIAMENT - Government rejected an American offer of Green Cards to 1,000 Ugandans, MPs have learnt. Bukoto East MP John Nsambu told the committee on Presidential and Foreign Affairs on February 26 that government rejected the US offer, saying Ugandans would flee the country and seek political asylum in America. If many Ugandans fled, the MP said, government feared that its image would be tainted. "We don't have enough jobs here, the education system is not good here and they [government officials] are just sitting on all these chances," Nsambu said. The offer was made five years ago during President Bill Clinton's administration. Mr Muruli Mukasa (Nakasongola) said that it is not government's policy to block Ugandans from enjoying such opportunities. He said it is just a few individuals in government who deny others the chance to get a better standard of living. Mukasa is the former minister of state for Security. Committee chairwoman Salaamu Musumba said that the government has let down its people in all spheres. The committee resolved to call Foreign minister James Wapakhabulo to explain why the government rejected the offer. Nsambu told The Monitor that when the government rejected the offer it was passed on to the Philippines, which took it up readily. "The [Filipinos] took it and we missed out," Nsambu said. Mr Julius Onen, the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The Monitor that he has not heard of the American offer. He said, however, that the government is working on a strategy to see that Ugandans work and live abroad. A source within the ministry told The Monitor that the Middle East and European countries normally extend job offers to the government but because Uganda does not have a law on migrant workers such job offers cannot be made public. The source said that normally foreign governments contact Ugandan embassies and pass on the information about job opportunities. "Right now Canada is in high need of artisans, they have informed our ambassador and the ambassador contacted us but we can not go out in the public to announce that there are jobs in Canada," the source said. The source said that it is now up to individuals to make arrangement to go to Canada. "Even Norway, Demark they want people to work at a middle level in farms but there is no law to back us up to make it public," the source. Onen confirmed to The Monitor at the weekend that Canada currently needs artisans but people are supposed to make their individual arrangements to go there but not through the government. Artisans that are needed in Canada are carpenters, welders, bricklayers, plumbers. Onen said that the ministry is trying to create a data bank where people with specific qualifications and contact addresses can be stored so that when foreign governments offer jobs to Ugandans then they would be picked easily. He said that the ministry is sending a team to Cairo next week to study how they managed to formulate a policy on sending people abroad for jobs. "I think this way we shall be able to assist our people to get jobs abroad," Onen said. |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* -------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
