SLAVE TRADE OF THE 21ST CENTURY Chapter 04
Now we come to the issue of our degree, diploma, and certificate-holding brothers and sisters who go to other continents in search of employment. Firstly, there are costs involved in the process. Some people part with money amounting to fifteen million Uganda shillings to go work a menial job where they are paid two hundred and fifty dollars or less. Usually, this money is borrowed from relatives, friends, or banks many of whom charge interest on the loan. So you find people working for a whole year just to pay back the money that facilitated their travel.
Is it possible that someone with a certificate, diploma or degree can't come up with a business idea that can be kick-started by the fifteen million shillings invested into going to work abroad? To make matters worse, very few of these cases involve people who are going to tackle jobs in line with their academic qualifications. This has to stop if Africa is to develop.
I interact with some of my friends who tell heart-rending stories of the difficulties they endure and the mere sums they are paid in those countries where they have gone in pursuit of a better life. To add pressure to the difficulty, all the family members who have stayed behind have all their hopes fixed on them.
Our governments have contributed greatly to this unfortunate state of affairs. What do you expect citizens to do if the government officials who are responsible for creating employment and a favorable working environment are the ones starting up companies to take people abroad with a promise of well-paying jobs? The greatest beneficiaries of this arrangement are the companies - they are paid by those who want the workers abroad and they also charge fees from those who are interested in going. They hunt with the hounds and run with the hares.
Furthermore, the taxes deducted from funds that are remitted by those working abroad to support the people they have left home and set up businesses that can help them in the future make you wonder whether anyone is really concerned about the welfare of our people. Cry, the beloved country!
Some will argue that a number of those who go abroad are prosperous and successful when they get back. My response is, "what is the percentage?" People make money and send it back home to be kept in bank accounts where they hope it will accumulate enough for them to invest it profitably on their return.
When they finally come back, they painfully realize the hardships associated with doing business in an environment they are not used to. This is akin to chicken which is used to staying indoors and being taken care of by their owners. They wouldn't know where to start if they were ever released to go and find their own food. They may even stay put after the door is opened for them. Getting them to move out will require serious prodding.
Someone has been confined to a house in Saudi Arabia for more than two years. How can they come back to a country they left behind claiming that it was hard to start up a business there and be expected to fare any better? Has their absence somehow made things different? In my opinion, the business environment becomes more competitive and hostile by the day. There is no way these people will be able to do with the money they have amassed from their work abroad what they were not able to do with the money they used to travel before they left.
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