A total of 29 women have been deported from Saudi Arabia where they had gone to work.

The police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said the deportees were received by the immigrations and police, at the Entebbe International Airport, last week.

However, he stressed that they all returned using emergency travel certificates after their passports and other documents had been purportedly confiscated by their employers.

“Upon interviewing them, they claimed to have been going through a lot of mistreatment and harassment from their employers. All of them used emergency travel certificates for their return without their passports which they say had been confiscated by their employers, thus making it difficult to move, but later managed to get assistance,” he said.

Enanga stressed that they were all profiled and cleared by immigration pending further investigations.

“But they all looked sickly and traumatized as a result of the harsh treatment they were going through in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

He noted that the police is still engaging the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, to investigate the circumstances under which the victims left the country and those responsible.

He further noted that the Aviation Police also managed to intercept 14 Ugandan migrant workers with forged Interpol letters at Entebbe International Airport, destined for Saudi Arabia.

“They were being escorted by the operations manager of Security Link, Mubarak Kikomeko who is still detained by the Aviation Police pending further investigation. He was charged with forgery and utterance of forged documents,” Enanga noted.

He said they want to expand the investigation to know who helped him get the forged certificates.

Trafficker arrested

Relatedly, the deputy National Coordinator, against trafficking in person, Agnes Igoye said one Moses Eria was arrested for allegedly trafficking women on promises of getting jobs.

At the time of his arrest, Igoye said the suspect already had three girls from Laibi Pece in Gulu, one from Kireka in wakiso, and another from Koboko district whom he was keeping at Governor Hill Lodge in Njeru, Jinja.

He said the suspect was arraigned before court and charged with trafficking in persons.