Child trafficking in Karamoja perpetuated within communities

The deputy national coordinator of Prevention of Trafficking in Persons, Agnes Igoye, has said the challenges with child trafficking in Napak district and most of the Karamoja sub-region is that the perpetrators are within the communities.

“They are parents of the children, sisters, brothers, uncles, grandparents. This makes it hard for the children to disclose their relatives for arrest and prosecution. However, we do employ a lot of intelligence to get to the traffickers,” Igoye told New Vision on Monday.

Secondly, she said, children usually start their journeys on foot-mostly in darkness using irregular/ feeder/panya routes.

"And remember these children are brought up in a nomadic lifestyle where they herd animals so walking long distances is not a big problem for them, but these are still dangerous journeys because they move at night. They walk up to Katakwi and Amuria districts where they board vehicles sometimes with the assistance of their traffickers,” she noted.

She said the children are also taking advantage of market days, to move in disguise most times with the knowledge of their parents.

“Napak is also very porous- 4,978 Kilometers so these children indeed walk very long distances,” she added.

11 children intercepted

Igoye recently said following a tip-off from a member of the elders' forum to one of their Police officers Ojang John Robert that there were children leaving Napak, footing without luggage- girls aged 12-15 years, transit districts and checkpoints were mounted along the highways in Iriri, Katakwii, Soroti, Awoja, Amuria and Soroti.

The children were intercepted in a taxi number UBB 725J with 11 girls. The taxi driver Samora Bashir was arrested.

According to the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009, human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by various means for purposes of exploitation.

“This means that all actors in the chain when caught committing a crime including transporters. That is why it’s important for anyone transporting children to ensure they have permission and that they are transporting children lawfully,” she told New Vision.

So Samora was charged in Katakwi, a district he was transiting. He has been remanded until August 31 after denying 11 counts.

With the support from the coordination office for the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Office at the Ministry of Internal Affairs where Igoye is the deputy, the children were taken care of in terms of feeding, transporting them back home with Police protection and reintegrated to their homes in the presence of local councils of the villages.