Five suspected child traffickers arrested in Fort Portal

Police in Fort Portal City have rescued at least 19 children and arrested five suspected human traffickers.

The Rwenzori west regional police spokesperson, Mr Vincent Twesige, said the police received information from a reliable source on Tuesday evening at around 7pm that a suspicious vehicle from Hima in Kasese District was carrying children.

“Our officers intercepted the vehicle and found 19 children between 7 and 13 years (13 males, 6 females) together with other five adults whom they arrested. We are currently investigating a case of aggravated human trafficking,” he said.

Mr Twesige added that the children were found with bags and dressed in casual clothes and upon interrogation, they said they were being taken to a certain school in Jinja to study for free.

“We all know schools are soon closing for term one holidays, so we are wondering where these children were being taken and for what purpose. We are preparing a case file for the suspects and will soon appear in court to answer,” he said.

Last November, the coordinator for justice and peace for the Holy Cross Sisters in Rwenzori region, Sister Semerita Mbabu, said there were surging cases of human trafficking in the sub-region, saying that over 100 people had been rescued from traffickers in the year 2022.

Human trafficking in Uganda

The 2021 Uganda Human Rights Commission report indicated that a total of 1,295 persons were victims of trafficking out of whom 790 were victims of transnational trafficking, 475 were victims of internal trafficking, and 30 victims were unknown.

The same report showed that a total of 713 victims were female adults, 285 were female juveniles, and 86 were male juveniles, while 181 were male adults.

The most forms of exploitation for victims of trafficking in persons include sexual where 117 cases were registered, labour (94), forced marriage (47), illegal activity (19), and debt bondage (5).