ENTEBBE, UGANDA: The Police and immigration personnel at the Entebbe International Airport have arrested an Ethiopian national identified as Muhammad Muhammed on allegations of trafficking four young girls (also Ethiopians) to Lebanon.
Ms. Agnes Igoye, the deputy coordinator of the National Prevention of Human Trafficking in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ethiopian identified as Muhammad Muhammed, holder of passport number EP970822 was arrested early this month on June 9 together with three other nationals who were using Uganda as a passage to cover their tracks.
“This is the trend and a tactic for all traffickers. That is why we need to have the coordination to fight human trafficking in the region and beyond. You can just imagine all the way from Ethiopia to Uganda. It is a very long distance but it is their way of covering their tracks,” said Ms. Igoye.
She further explained that these travel through Kenya, and enter Uganda via the Busia-Malaba border post from where they tend to split in a group of two-fours until they board the plane at the airport.
“It’s upon interrogation that we learned that there is now a ring of Ethiopians who are passing through Kenya, entering our borders through the eastern border of Busia and Malaba and they are using Uganda as a transit route. They also move in groups of two to four while entering Uganda, the traffickers then harbour them in specific places where they split again and move alone,” she added.
Igoye said the victims were taken to a temporary shelter for protection while the suspected trafficker is detained at Jinja Road Police Station pending further investigations.
“We want to thank the Office of the Prime Minister which is providing us with interpreters to help interpret for them. You can imagine these are victims who even do not understand our language,” she said.
In a related development, police also arrested and detained two suspects identified as Nsamba Quraish and Kemirembe Rose who allegedly recruited 25 children and harboured them under unclear circumstances.
It is said that when the duo recruited the children, they housed the boys in a garage in Najjanankumbi while the girls were harboured in Rubaga, Bulange B zone.
They apparently misled them into believing that they were going to take them to a technical school which is called Asalam Happy Agency Institute in Najjanankumbi which school does not exist.
It is also alleged that the suspects have been soliciting money in disguise while harbouring these children in hidden places and by the time they were arrested, the children were not studying.
Igoye hence called upon the public to be on alert and monitor their neighbourhoods for unsuspecting persons and behaviour of people.
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