Gov’t probes Ethiopian trafficking syndicate in Kampala

Government has said that they are investigating a new criminal syndicate of Ethiopians who have started trafficking people through Uganda.

This was revealed Monday, by Agnes Igoye, the deputy coordinator of the National Prevention of Trafficking in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to her, the probe followed the arrest of an Ethiopian national called Muhammad Muhammed holder of passport number EP970822 on trafficking charges.

“ Its 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,” she said.

The investigations led to the interception of four Ethiopians at Entebbe international airport who were reportedly being trafficked to Lebanon by the same syndicate in which Muhammad Muhammed belongs.

Igoye further revealed to pressmen some of the trafficker’s operational tactics for instance moving ahead of the victims while in transit at airports like how Muhammad Muhammad was arrested while escorting two people at Entebbe airport.

“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 said.

This has led to heightening of security at eastern custom border posts and Entebbe international airport to disrupt the operations of the criminal syndicate like it was done to one which was trafficking Burundian girls through Uganda.

Relatedly, police has in custody two suspects identified as Nsamba Quraish and Kemirembe Rose reportedly 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.