Risdel Kasasira
20 December 2007
Parliament — HUMAN traffickers are heading for life imprisonment if Parliament approves the Prevention of Trafficking In Persons Bill.
The private members bill was tabled before Parliament on Tuesday by Rukungiri Woman MP Winfred Masiko.
"Any person who commits the offence of aggravated trafficking in persons shall, on conviction, be liable to life imprisonment," the bill says.
Ms Masiko said: "It seeks to prevent trafficking, prosecute traffickers and protect victims."
The bill defines human trafficking in 11 ways and some of these include transporting and recruiting persons for domestic or overseas employment, commonly known as kyeyo, without any prior arrangement.
If this bill is passed, this may see the end to fake agents who traffic women for prostitution to developed countries under the guise of getting them jobs.
Ms Masiko, who is also the Chairperson of Uganda Women Parliament Association, said majority of the human trafficking victims are women and children.
"We want to combat trafficking of persons, which is a contemporary manifestation of modern day slavery, whose victims are predominantly women and children," she said.
The bill also lists buying of prostitutes, abduction for witchcraft, harmful rituals as human trafficking. Last year, central Uganda experienced several child abduction cases in which victims were allegedly sacrificed by the witch doctors.
According to a report by the Trafficking in Persons Uganda at the United States Embassy in Kampala, 7,000-12,000 children are engaged in commercial sex exploitation in Uganda.
The report, which quotes the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development statistics, says 28 per cent of these children are assisted by taxi drivers, bar and brothel owners.
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