The minister of labour, gender and social development, Frank Tumwebaze has urged African countries to sign protocols that will allow African nations to share consular services.
His call came as a result of high unemployment rate in country which has forced many Ugandans to seek jobs abroad.
However, some Ugandans end up struggling without any consular support to help them with their various problems.
Consequently, Tumwebaze said if African countries sign protocol, this will allow the African nations share consular services in a country where one’s government is not properly represented.
“If our workers are in Iraq or Qatah, Ugandans has no consular presence there, Kenya we agreed to support or Somalia. How do we make this become real,” he asked.
He made the remarks while addressing labour ministers from 17 English speaking countries in Kampala.
He said the issues of “I am being abused ,I am being unfairly treated, the consular from the nearest embassy should be there, “
He told the media that the meeting also called upon for the universal social protection as its enshrined in the international labour law.
“When you go to different counties, you will find a debate where should the national social security funds be governed, is it in the ministry of labour or it should be managed through duo policy arrangement,” he queried.
The deputy director of the international labour organisation Valerie Schnitte said currently only 2.9% have access to social protection like NSSF while over 70% are languishing into poverty and uncertainty.
She said there is a huge challenge to cover the remaining percentage of the social protection.
She urged government to come in and help the poor by contributing towards their social protection.
She added that world wide 4 billion people have no access to social protection and many are in Africa.
