UGANDA: Women trafficked into sex work
KAMPALA, 6 March 2012 (IRIN) - The growing number of Ugandan women being
recruited into forced sex work abroad has led to a government investigation
into human trafficking.
Hajah Noraihan, the honorary consul of Uganda in Malaysia, says more than
600 Ugandan women have been trafficked into the sex trade there.
"They are conned into coming to Malaysia for high-paying jobs, which are
non-existent," Noraihan told IRIN. "And when they go there, they are
informed that they have to sell their bodies."
Linda Muyimba* was trafficked to Malaysia following the promise of a free
ticket and a retail job that would pay her 2.5 million Ugandan shillings a
month (about US$1,080).
Job offers are rare in Uganda, and unemployment is high. Muyimba says she
did not ask how a visa was processed, or which company had recruited her.
"I just wanted to get some good money so I can help my kid, I can help my
mom. I never imagined this would happen," Muyimba said.
In July 2011, Muyimba says she ended up alongside about a dozen other
Ugandan women in a Chinese hotel, for what she thought would be a brief
stopover on her way to her new job. Until a Ugandan woman she knew only as
Faith took her passport, limited her movements, and started sending a string
of men into her hotel room.
"She didn't answer anything," Muyimba said. "When you refused she would slap
us and not give us food to eat."
Muyimba says she was held against her will in that hotel for a month and
forced to sleep with multiple men every day. When she tried to escape, she
and another woman were flown to Malaysia.
She never made it past immigration, and was detained there for months. After
falling ill, she found out she was pregnant. When she later miscarried, she
also found out she had contracted HIV.
In December 2011, she was repatriated to Uganda by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM).
Legal loopholes
Noraihan says at least 10 Ugandan trafficked women continue to join
Malaysia's sex trade daily.
Obtaining reliable figures is difficult, according to the IOM. For instance,
anyone over the age of 18, who says they are in the trade voluntarily,
cannot be considered trafficked, despite pervasive methods of intimidation
from their bosses.
"These loopholes in the law are well known and exploited in an opportunistic
manner by traffickers," Zafarullah Hassim, an IOM Uganda representative,
told IRIN via email.
In Malaysia, figures have only come from proactive visa raids on illegal
migrants since authorities busted a trafficking ring last October, in which
21 Ugandan women were discovered in a brothel in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
The IOM has repatriated 14 Ugandan women from Malaysia as of 23 February.
According to Uganda's director of Interpol, Asan Kasingye, Ugandan women are
also being trafficked to India, Thailand, China, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
India provided a number - 300 - of Ugandan trafficking survivors, says
Kasingye.
IOM says it is developing a database for trafficking survivors.
Government response
A parliamentary committee is now scheduled to travel to Malaysia on 5 March
to investigate, while a new joint taskforce led by Internal Affairs is
expected to report on 15 March.
James Mugume, the permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs, says the
staggering figure of 600 women took government by surprise.
"Trafficking was not an issue until we got this big problem of Malaysia," he
said.
But Noraihan says she warned the Ugandan government of the emerging crisis
in 2008.
Nothing was done and this is what happened," Noraihan said.
She and Mugume agree that action needed to be taken at home.
"The biggest issue is we have to stop the traffic from here - and that's why
Internal Affairs is very crucial - to track down the companies doing the
recruiting here," Mugume said.
Yet domestic labour export companies have been allowed to operate with
impunity for years, says Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, a Kampala-based lawyer
bringing a class action against the Ugandan government for its complicity in
trafficking.
Rwakafuuzi is representing an estimated 147 women who were allegedly sold
into domestic slavery in Iraq in 2009. Only 18 of these have been
repatriated, he says, and government has failed to prosecute those
responsible.
"If government had heeded this then, we could have plugged some of these
loopholes," Rwakafuuzi said. "It [human trafficking] is getting worse every
day."
The accused company, Uganda Veterans Development Ltd, briefly had its
licence to export labour revoked, alongside 19 other security companies
registered by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD).
But it was re-issued in December 2010.
"In this country, you cannot get a labour export licence without being
politically connected," Rwakafuuzi said. "They are being protected from
prosecution."
On 8 February, MP Elijah Okupa tabled a petition in Parliament demanding an
investigation into domestic labour export companies. The MGLSD is now head
of another parliamentary committee, expected to table a report in mid-March.
Though Uganda's Trafficking in Persons Bill was enacted in 2009, an already
overwhelmed court system has yet to convict anyone under it. According to
the <
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/164457.pdf> US State
Department Trafficking in Persons report for 2011, at least 16
investigations have been outstanding since then.
"The intelligence is there but there is something missing," said Kasingye.
"We have an enabling law, we must use the provisions of that law to find all
the people who are involved in trafficking in persons."
Kasingye called for a regional approach modelled on the West Africa Coast
Initiative (WACI), which allows for a dedicated unit in each affected
country to share information.
Many Ugandan survivors are first taken to Rwanda, Burundi or Kenya and then
flown to Asia or the Middle East for sexual slavery, Kasingye said.
The WACI-based Transnational Crime Units (TCU) would ideally work closely
with prosecutors as well.
Last October, the American Bar Association re-launched its human trafficking
programme in Uganda, with the aim of coordinating implementation across
sectors.
*Not her real name
pc/mw
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Received on Tue Mar 06 2012 - 16:58:25 EST
