Kawempe and Old Kampala Police Divisions have arrested four directors of two foreign labour recruiting firms for alleged human trafficking.
According to Agnes Igoye, the Deputy Coordinator for the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons at the Ministry of Internal Affair, the directors include John Kamome, the Director of Al-Saudi recruiting agency in Nansana.
Igoye told the media that a team of Police officers and operatives from the Internal Security Organization-ISO picked Kamome up on Monday, following numerous complaints by his victims.
By the time of his arrest, Kamome's company had reportedly trafficked an unknown number of Ugandans in collaboration with other unauthorized companies with agents abroad.
It is alleged that most of the victims told officers that they paid money amounting to Shillings 4.5 million while others accused the company of confiscating their passports.
Igoye noted that Kamome’s company was suspended in 2019 for faking bank grantees and has been operating illegally.
Meanwhile, Kawempe police division is holding three directors of Preferred Consultancy Limited, whose particulars have not been released on similar charges.
They were arrested following the interception of six human trafficking victims at Entebbe International Airport over the weekend. Some of the victims are Janet Nakamanyi, Aisha Nabisalu, Rachel Najuko and Peninah Natukunda.
According to Fred Enanga the Police Spokesperson, the preliminary finding shows that the license of this company expired and has never been renewed.
“They have been continuously operating illegally by sneaking girls out of the country to Saudi-Arabia and Omani via Cairo in Egypt with the help of a Saudi national only identified as Muhammad," said Enanga.
He added that unscrupulous labour exporting companies continue to take advantage of young girls who are in a vulnerable economic state. Enanga says the girls are ignorantly accepting to go abroad, without knowing what they are going to face, including sexual exploitation, torture, removal of their organs and sometimes murders.
He urged Ugandans planning to leave for green pastures abroad to do due diligence on the legitimacy and legality of labour exporting companies to avoid falling into the trap of human traffickers.
