THE Government has been urged to punish human traffickers and implement the newly-passed anti-trafficking legislation.
The Trafficking in Persons Report released in the US on Tuesday also asked the Government to investigate and punish recruiters who send Ugandans into forced labour abroad.
The report, which singles out Uganda as source and destination for men, women and children trafficked for purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation, also recommends that the Government provides protection for all trafficking victims.
Ugandan children are trafficked within the country for forced labour in the fishing, agriculture and domestic service sectors, as well as commercial sexual exploitation.
They are also trafficked to other East African and European countries.
Karimojong women and children are sold as slaves in cattle markets and are forced into domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, cattle herding and begging.
Security companies in Kampala recruit Ugandans to work as security guards in Iraq where sometimes their travel documents and pay have been withheld as a means of coercing them into continued labour.
The report points out that human trafficking of Ugandan children for the forcible removal of body parts is widespread.
It adds that the so-called witchdoctors seek body parts of live victims for traditional medicinal concoctions commonly purchased to heal illness, foster economic advancement or hurt enemies.
According to the Police Annual Crime Report, 25 cases of ritual murder, where children were the main victims, were reported last year.
The report notes that Pakistani, Indian and Chinese workers are also trafficked to Uganda.
Children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania are trafficked to Uganda for agricultural labour and commercial sex.
The report adds that until August 2006, the LRA abducted children and adults in northern Uganda to serve as soldiers, sex slaves and porters.
“At least 711 people, mostly children, were abducted by the LRA between December 2007 and January 2009 in the Central African Republic, the DR Congo and southern Sudan,” the report notes.
The report adds that the Government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, though it is making significant efforts to do so.
