Kevin J. Kelley
19 June 2007
Nairobi — Tanzania and Uganda are making "significant efforts" to fight human trafficking, while Kenya lags behind in protecting its citizens against forced labour and commercial sex exploitation, the US State Department says in a report issued last week.
All three East African countries are described as sources, transit points and destinations for trafficked persons. Women and girls are coerced or lured into servitude in each country, and are also sent abroad to work as domestic servants and sex slaves, the report says.
In the case of Kenya, women from outside East Africa are brought to Nairobi to work in brothels and massage parlours, the State Department adds. Similar networks operate in Uganda.
Says the report: "Importers traffic Pakistani, Indian and Chinese workers to Uganda, and trafficking networks bring in Indian women for sexual exploitation."
The Kenyan government gets poor marks for its anti-trafficking performance for the second consecutive year. The US has once again placed Kenya on a "watch list" that now includes 32 of the 164 countries surveyed by the State Department. Continued failure to meet what the department describes as minimum anti-trafficking standards could result in Kenya losing a portion of the development aid it receives from the US.
The Kenyan government "failed to punish acts of trafficking during the reporting period," the report says, noting that the Kenya Police's Human Trafficking Unit conducted no investigations and launched no prosecutions last year.
At the same time, Kenya is commended for its "positive and expanding efforts to address child sex tourism at the Coast".
Ugandan authorities, in contrast, arrested and prosecuted several alleged traffickers during the past year, the report says, citing specific examples of such law-enforcement action, including the placement of check points on roads leading out of Karamoja. Police stopped vehicles transporting women and children, leading to the rescue of four girls from traffickers last July and the arrest of three suspected traffickers a month later, the report notes.
Karamoja is targeted, the study says, because "Karamojong women and children are sold in cattle markets or by intermediaries and forced into domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, herding and begging."
The Ugandan government also sought to raise public awareness of human trafficking, the report says, adding "Radio networks, the primary source of information for Ugandans, carried several talk show programmes about the scope and magnitude of child trafficking in the country."
But Uganda is said to have done little to assist victims of trafficking, apart from children who had been abducted by and later rescued from the Lord's Resistance Army. "The government provided no protective services to children in prostitution; those rounded up with adults during police sweeps were generally released without charge," the report says.
Tanzania's efforts to protect victims of trafficking are also inadequate, according to the report. It says lack of resources caused Tanzanian government officials to rely heavily on non-governmental organisations to provide shelter, counselling and rehabilitation for trafficked persons. "Girls from rural areas are trafficked to urban centres for domestic servitude and commercial sex; some domestic workers fleeing abusive employers fall prey to exploitation in prostitution," it says.
It also cites "unconfirmed reports that Tanzanian girls are lured to resort towns by promises of hotel jobs or riches and trips abroad, but are instead given work in bars or are sexually exploited." Small numbers of Tanzanians are trafficked to South Africa, Oman and the UK for domestic servitude, adds the report.
There were no prosecutions or convictions of traffickers on the mainland last year, the report notes. In Zanzibar, however, police investigated at least five suspected trafficking cases, while immigration officials monitored passport applications with a view to preventing trafficking. The government of Zanzibar trained 170 of its 248 immigration officers in how to recognise, investigate and prosecute instances of trafficking, the report notes.
"Political will to address human trafficking in Tanzania increased significantly during the reporting period, resulting in concrete prevention efforts," it adds.
Sudan is rated as the East African country with the poorest record on human trafficking.
Sudan's government "does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Combating trafficking in persons through prevention, victim assistance and law enforcement measures was not a priority for the government in 2006," the report said.
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