Online yellow fever verification system launched at Elegu border point

The Office of the President, Elegu Border Post management and other labour exportation stakeholders have launched the yellow fever vaccination online verification system at Elegu Point of Entry.

This follows President Museveni's directive to his Office, to get involved in the labour externalization industry and coordinate the online verification exercise.

Located in Amuru district in Northern Uganda,  Elegu border point is the main entry and exit point along the northern route and sees  an average of 200 to 300 trucks per day, 30 to 40 small traveler service vehicles, and an average of six buses per day taking passengers on either side of Uganda and  South Sudan.

The yellow fever vaccination verification online system was mainly developed to curb the rampant forgeries of yellow fever cards, especially amongst migrant workers by labour companies and the system was first launched at Entebbe Airport.

Elegu is the first land border crossing where it has been taken to.

In a meeting with key sector players , the Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Affairs, Amb. Abbey Walusimbi, told the management of Elegu Border Post that President Museveni has a lot of trust in them and urged them to do their job diligently.

" Your job is not easy because there will always be crafty humans who think they can beat the system, but the president has faith in your ability to block people with such thinking," Walusimbi said.

“When the president directed our office to get involved in the labour externalisation industry and coordinate the online verification exercise of Yellow Fever certification, he was at the brink of closing a dear project to him."

Walusimbi noted that government has  however, made a number of positive achievements in a bid to streamline the labour externalisation  industry.

In this sense, he revealed that they are allocated office space at the airport, and they will soon deploy operatives to all border posts in a bid to curb the human trafficking vice, and eventually wipe it out of the country.

Walusimbi called upon the border point administration to unite in the fight against labour exportation illegalities.

The Senior Presidential Advisor on Gender and Youth Affairs, Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi, said the NRM manifesto in conjunction with NDP III clearly put emphasis on fighting corruption.

"Forgeries in yellow fever certification not only tantamount to loss of government revenue, but also increase corruption tendencies,” Nakiwala said.

"So today we are here to assess compliance and also to launch the online application to verify yellow fever certificates at Elegu border especially amongst migrant workers."

Nakiwala explained that the mandate of the Office of the President is to oversee the performance of government agencies, as well as assist public agencies in execution of their duties.

"Our office will continue to liaise with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Gender and other government departments and agencies to reduce these irregularities."

The Amuru RDC,   Odong Latek Stephen, who chaired the meeting appreciated the efforts by government to partner with the private clinics to report and trace these perpetrators.

He also hailed the online application which has already yielded positive results especially at Entebbe Airport.

The meeting was also attended by the LCV Chairperson, the border security officials, URA border staff, Port health authorities led by Onekalit Robert, Director of Palwark health center, Board Immigration officials, and many others.