Number of Ugandan nationals rises as other expat groups fall

Muscat: The number of Ugandan expat workers in Oman increased by 30 per cent in June 2018 compared to December 2017 last year, the highest rise among expatriate groups in the Sultanate.
This comes at a time when many expats are leaving the Sultanate due to the economic downturn and fewer are coming in due to the visa ban that applies to certain professions.
In fact, the number of Indians in Oman has gone down by 2.8 per cent and stands at 672,169 people, whereas, the number of Bangladeshis declined by 4.1 per cent.
There were fewer Pakistanis in the country, with their percentage seeing a decline of 5.1 per cent and their population being 225,563.
At the end of December 2017, there were 24,449 Ugandan nationals which increased to 31,945 in June.
The overwhelming majority of them are women at 31,595, while only 350 are men. Observers pointed out that this is largely down due to the number of Ugandan women workers flying into the country. In the recent past, Asian countries have put in place a lot of regulations, as far as hiring of housemaids in the Gulf region is concerned. Notably, this is not the case with Uganda and other African nations. Sami Muctar, country manager of Ethiopian Airlines said that people from Uganda take the airlines’ daily flights to Muscat.