By James Odongo 11/5/2012
In Soroti
Child trafficking
persists despite new law
At a glance, the Bus at the
Katakwi Police Station junkyard would pass as one that transports various
passengers to and fro Karamoja sub region.
A closer look, however,
reveals more than meets the eye.
Inside, 40 disabled
Karimojong children were being brought to Kampala
under unclear circumstances. The Bus had other passengers who had no idea of
where these children were going.
The April, 2010 incident of suspected child
trafficking was reported by the District Police Commander (DPC) of Moroto in
Karamoja sub region who called the District Police Commander of Katakwi to
inform him about a bus that was on its way to Kampala via Katakwi and was carrying
many disabled Karimojong children picked from Matany area in Moroto.
This bus was intercepted by police in Katakwi
but upon interrogation the woman who was responsible for the children said that
she was taking them to Katalemwa home for the disabled located in Kampala. She produced
papers to that effect and was allowed to proceed to Kampala with the children
but the Regional Police Commander in Kampala was requested to intervene and
cross-check to ensure that that the information given by this woman was
correct.
Later it was reported that
the 40 disabled Karamojong children were being brought to Kampala under unclear circumstances.
This is just one of the
ingenious ways of child trafficking in Karamoja and Teso sub regions.
The highest number
of trafficking victims reported to be present in Soroti and Katakwi districts
are Karamojong children.
“Due to the hard
conditions of life in Karamoja the parents of many children sell them off to
interested buyers at almost no cost. In most cases, the Karamojong boys are
used by the people in the Teso sub region to take care of big herds of cattle
and the girls have to work as domestic servants, mainly cultivating the
gardens. Some of the Karamojong girls are sexually exploited by the men who
take them as wives while others are forced into early marriages with Iteso
men”, the report notes.
In 2009, the Katakwi district Probation and
Social Welfare Office conducted a head count to establish the total number of
Karamojong children who had been trafficked into the district and were living
in the sub counties of Ngariam, Ongongoja and Katakwi town council.
It was established from this exercise that 300
Karamojong children were present in these three sub counties alone, and they
were being exploited by the families that were keeping them.
It was also
observed that many Karamojong boys are made to work without any pay in Katakwi
and when they ask for their money, the Iteso families for whom they are working
threaten to falsely report them to police for defiling their daughters.
This is according to the baseline survey by an International NGO, Avocats Sans
Frontieres (ASF) in conjunction with Federation of Uganda Women Lawyers (FIDA-U)
under the project to Combat Child trafficking in Uganda.
The
survey was conducted in the districts of Soroti, Katakwi and Kampala from 20th April to 21st
May, 2010.
The report says in 2009, a
young woman from Usuk
Sub County
in Katakwi district was reported to the police at Katakwi Central Police
Station for trafficking girls from Karamoja whom she would take to Soroti and
sell off to people who would buy them to work as domestic servants.
“This woman was getting a lot of money from
the business of trafficking Karamojong girls, but she was arrested by police
after being reported by a mother to one of her victims, who was recovered from
Soroti”, Margaret Ikulot, LC5 Vice Chairperson Katakwi District recalls.
Another man in Soroti
district used to traffic Karamojong children to Soroti where he would make them
to keep other people’s cattle and at the end of every month he would go around
to collect money for himself from the people who were engaging the labour of
the Karamojong boys whom he supplied.
The report notes that Katakwi
district has become a transit point for the Karamojong children who are brought
lorries and sold openly at Ocorimongin cattle market at 3,000/= to people who
buy them for purposes of cheap domestic labour.
“Arranged and early marriages involving young girls as the victims are
common in Katakwi district. For example in Ngariam sub county, such marriages
are nowadays being transacted from the bushes and in the swamps as parents of
the bride try to hide away from the police”, says IP Asero Florence, Officer-in-charge of
Child and Family Protection Unit, Katakwi Central Police Station..
However, whenever the Child Protection Committees (CPCs) in the villages
get to learn of the celebration of these kinds of arranged marriages being
conducted in their areas, they usually report the matter to the Assistant
Community Development Officer of the sub county for intervention from the
district.
Asero says some arranged marriages have already been successfully
stopped during their celebrations in Bisina and Odoot parishes by the police
after receiving reports through the Child Protection Committees.
“Some children from Soroti and
Katakwi districts, especially young girls have ended up becoming victims of
child trafficking after they were voluntarily given by their parents to members
of the communities who requested for babysitting”, says Ekalam Joseph, Senior
District Probation and Social Welfare Officer, Soroti.
Under the Iteso culture and
traditions, its considered normal for children to be given as baby sitters for
the babies of their elder sisters and brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins,
instead of hiring maids which is at times expensive.
The survey established that
the police, directorate of public prosecutions and the courts in Katakwi,
Soroti and Kampala
did not have any statistics on cases of child trafficking that were handled
from 2009 to May 2010.
The
baseline survey found out that the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Office
has not been designated by the Minister of Internal Affairs.
The Prevention of Trafficking in
Persons Act, 2009 requires the Minister of Internal Affairs to designate an
office to be responsible for the coordination, monitoring and overseeing the
implementation of the Prevention of
Trafficking in Persons Act, 2009.
One of the functions that are supposed to be
performed by the office is to propose rules and regulations to the Minister of
Internal Affairs as may be necessary for the effective implementation of this
Act.
Uganda has ratified many of the international instruments
and protocols related to child trafficking and the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009 successfully
incorporates international minimum standards in relation to the prohibition and
prevention of trafficking as well as providing important legal protections for
victims of trafficking.
However
while a strong legal framework is in place it is not being applied to address
the problem of child trafficking in Uganda.
Emoruoit
Silver, the Executive Director, Katakwi Children’s Voice, a local community
based organization advocating for children rights points out that in order to
combat trafficking in Uganda it is important that the law prohibiting
trafficking be vigorously implemented.
“This
means that the public must understand that child trafficking is a crime so that
they can register complaints, the police must be able to identify child
trafficking crimes in order to thoroughly investigate and the directorate of
public prosecutions must prosecute the offenders under the new Act and judges
must render appropriately heavy penalties”, Emoruoit urges.
It’s
only with this type of coordinated enforcement will the efforts to fight child
trafficking bear results. Ends.
No comments:
Post a Comment