207 Ugandans trafficked since start of 2015

By Joyce Namutebi

A total of 207 men, women and children have been trafficked since January to June 2015, a senior official in the Ministry of Internal affairs has said.

Commissioner Police, Moses Binoga, who is the coordinator of the National Task Force for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons said 70 of the 207 were male adults, 45 male juveniles, 65 female adults and 21 female juveniles.

He said that most Ugandan children have been trafficked within the country while most adults have been taken abroad.

He cited countries including Malaysia, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China, USA, South Africa, South Sudan, Qatar, Iraq, India, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya as the common destinations.

During the just concluded Women’s Parliament, implementation of the Prevention in Trafficking in Persons Act, 2009 was one of the laws that that the delegates looked at. Other laws included Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act, 2010 and the Domestic Violence Act, 2010.

Binoga said most of the victims have been subjected to sexual exploitation, human sacrifice, used in commission of crimes, while others have had their body parts removed for purposes of witchcraft or for sale.

He cited unemployment and poverty as the biggest push factors of trafficking in persons and urged the government to continue designing strategies to address the problem.

“Sophistication of trafficking operators has been made easier with the absence of effective national guidelines and lack of bilateral memoranda of understanding with foreign countries on issues of labour recruitment, child adoption, body organ donation, offer of scholarships/bursaries,” he said.

He revealed that 837 people were trafficked in 2013 while in 2014 the number reduced to 293 people.

He urged the relevant government ministries to urgently put in place and enforce stringent regulations and guidelines on key factors that promote the vice.

He also called on the government to put in place a victim assistance fund to assist victims in critical circumstances.