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00:00 Like thousands of other young Ugandans, Carol Namugaya is heading out to Saudi Arabia.
00:05 The 22-year-old will soon be earning twice as much as the average salary at home.
00:09 I want to get as much money as I can to help my family and maybe start a business when
00:13 I come back here.
00:15 I will also be able to pay school fees for my brothers and sisters.
00:18 To register for the move, Carol had to wait until the end of March and the renewal of
00:23 a labor export agreement between Uganda and Saudi Arabia.
00:26 Yenifer, who used to work in Oman, is giving Carol a few pointers.
00:30 They love kids so much.
00:31 So if you find a family with kids, love their kids.
00:34 If you love their kids, things will be well for you.
00:37 Yenifer set up her own NGO to protect the rights of domestic workers.
00:41 More than 80,000 workers fly to the Middle East each year and sometimes the jobs go horribly
00:46 wrong.
00:47 Yenifer registers hundreds of complaints a year, many alleging abuse, kidnappings and
00:51 violations of contracts.
00:52 They own you.
00:53 Like they own you.
00:54 The things of contract, they don't want to know.
00:57 The man can force you to have sex when you refuse.
01:00 He can throw you from the maybe fourth floor, then you die.
01:05 Despite the risks, opportunity still entices.
01:08 But even for the lucky ones, the experience can be difficult.
01:11 Rebecca worked in the Middle East for four years.
01:13 There is no day off on the maids.
01:16 Even if you work at night, you are not allowed to keep your passport.
01:21 Like you are in prison.
01:22 Because if someone takes your identification, you can do nothing about it.
01:27 According to the government, the new agreement provides increased protection for expatriates.
01:32 They need our workers.
01:33 We also need to solve certain challenges, whether it's unemployment, whether it's stuff
01:38 around poverty issues.
01:41 You're looking at medical insurance, repatriation, standard issues around the welfare of a migrant
01:48 worker in a foreign country.
01:50 The export of workers is linked to significant remittances.
01:53 An estimated 150,000 Ugandans currently working in the Middle East send back around 900 million
02:00 US dollars to their loved ones a year.