DPP launches training to combat human trafficking

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Prosecutors from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions have started training aimed at acquiring new skills to confront human trafficking.

The training which will last a full week in Kampala according to DPP Jane Frances Abodo, is meant to address challenges they face while dealing with human trafficking cases. She says this will be done by providing a specialist and advanced training curriculum for senior level state attorneys, and training of trainers.

Abodo said that one of the challenges they are facing while dealing with the crime of trafficking in persons in Uganda, is that it is diverse and complex, and it thrives mostly out of sight and often spans over multiple jurisdictions, both internal and external, use of technology, making detection and enforcement difficult.

Additionally, she observed that the methods for identification, investigation, and prosecution of trafficking persons  in Uganda are relatively new, as anti-trafficking stakeholders push towards full implementation of  the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act.

According to Abodo therefore, the training will provide an opportunity for the participants to gain advanced skills and knowledge in handling human trafficking cases, and to learn and practice techniques to share with colleagues.

The prosecutor further indicated that human trafficking is done behind the scenes and to uncover the traffickers is not easy. She says even the victims are so hooked because the traffickers have the money, and given the economic hardships, they are lured and fail to show up to testify against their traffickers.

She suggests that when these victims are found, there is need to remove them from circulation and put them in shelter, but the challenge at the moment is that these shelters are run by Non-Governmental Organizations.

The training is being sponsored by the Human Trafficking Institute, and its Chief Executive Officer, Victor Boutrous, says that the vice is not only transnational, but also locally manifested which calls for training on how to deal with and prevent its further increase.

Tyler Dunman, the country director of the Human Trafficking Institute wants people to continue being sensitized about the effects and dangers associated with the vice which include going to jail for life.

The training has come at the time when the country is awash with bad stories about external migrant workers, some of whom narrate horrible tales of torture and illegal organ transplant. The latest story was of Judith Nakintu, a Ugandan who was taken to Saudi Arabia for domestic work and illegally lost her kidney.

Nakintu, who had been working as a housemaid in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia since December 2019, was suspiciously returned to Uganda with the right kidney missing. However, her family was informed that she was involved in an accident, although the nature of the accident was not revealed.

Nakintu has since been awarded Shillings 270 million by a court in Saudi Arabia for the loss of her kidney after it was found that she had been exploited by her employers who abused their power and authority to execute a mission through fraud or deceit.

There are many people who have had problems like Nakintu while others are said to have succumbed to similar challenges but did not get opportunity to be heard.

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