Uganda police have seized two bodies of Ugandans from relatives at Entebbe International Airport.
One of the bodies is of Frank Lwasa, who died in Dubai where he was working, while the second body is of Salima Babirye, who died in Saudi Arabia.
The two bodies were brought to the country separately by two unrelated parties.
Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire said the bodies were seized to enable the government of Uganda to carry out postmortem to establish the cause of the deaths.
“It is our procedure to carry our postmortems on bodies that have been brought in the country. We have to know the cause of death and where the incident happened. When we are done with the postmortem of the seized bodies, we shall hand them over to the relatives,” Assistant Superintendent of Police Owoyesigyire said yesterday.
The number of Ugandans, who die in the Middle East, is on the increase. Many of the people die in a suspicious manner. The Middle East is one of the places where Ugandans are seeking labour, but the human rights record of many of their employers is in question.
According to the 2021 Uganda Human Rights Commission report, at least 28 Ugandan migrant workers (25 females and three men) died in the Middle East.
Mr Owoyesigyire said the police often share medical reports of Ugandans, who died abroad with other government agencies to enable officials follow up on the cases.
Background
On August 22, activists carrying a coffin held a demonstration at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Kampala, protesting the deaths of Ugandans in their country.
The activists accused the government of Saudi Arabia of not doing enough to protect Ugandans working in their country.
Uganda has also tightened regulations of externalisation of labour to curb human trafficking and incidents in which Ugandans are killed or their rights are abused.
