UGANDAN GIRLS TRAFICKED TO MIDDLE EAST THROUGH NAIROBI

Investigation

Traffickers who smuggle Ugandan girls through Kenya to different destinations in the Middle East and South Africa have built a syndicate involving police officers, other security agencies and immigration staff from Uganda and Kenya, a preliminary investigation by Legal Link International has revealed.

The syndicate secretly lures unemployed Ugandan girls with promises of lucrative (high pay) especially in the Middle East, this syndicate process passports for them, transport them by road to Uganda’s eastern borders (Busia and Malaba), and then the games begin.

We have established that the traffickers use boda boda riders and travel agents to help the girls cross into Kenya through the official border points at Busia and Malaba, while some take advantage of the many unguarded crossings known as panyas to escape. It is lucrative business for those involved, our investigation shows.

Legal Link International's (LLI) investigations team also found out that the syndicate is accomplished by select officials at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) who ensure the girls fly out of Kenya to their respective destinations.

This investigation is based on information provided by girls who were intercepted in Kenya as they attempted to fly out to different destinations, two Ugandan resident district commissioners, parents of the girls, a labour “agent”, a Kenyan immigration official and an assortment of official documents and correspondences.

These girls are usually availed with the one-way ticket, promised a contract which usually takes TWO YEARS. if one is disatisfied with the contents therein, they are either framed in a legal wrong (crime) or forcefully abandoned by their sponsors BUT where can one go without a passport or a recognition from the embassy plus a wrong name?. 

It is sad that most of these young wemen and girls travel to these jurisdictions without knowing the legal regimes.it is usually had get any reasonable assistance from Ugandan embassies as they are forced to change names by local dealers there commonly known as SPONSORS and their passports are usually confiscated by the so called sponsors in the name of security.

Some of the girls end up in South Africa, Middle East countries such as Oman, which are the most popular destinations in this case. Authorities believe some of the girls and young women are being sold into sex slavery.

To demonstrate the lucrative nature of the business, a boda boda ride earns between Shs100,000 to Shs200,000 for safely delivering a girl to the Kenyan side of the Ugandan border. This journey should ordinarily cost no more than Shs5,000.

We were unable as of now to establish how much an “agent” makes if he/she successfully delivers a Ugandan girl to work as a domestic servant in Oman, But what we established is that on reaching they are all put in one big partitioned hall for quit some time as they are being screened for their sponsors to select. 

Charged

But even before the prospective employers pay the agent, some Ugandan girls are required to pay agents between Shs800,000 and Shs1.5 million and sometimes more.

The money facilitates the girls’ crossing at the border, their accommodation, fake stamps and movement to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. In some cases, girls destined to work as domestic servants are not required to pay any money.

The trafickeres through Kenya have existed for many years, but multiple sources show it intensified its operations after Kenya banned the export of domestic workers to the Middle East, leaving Uganda and neighboring countries such as Burundi and the DR Congo as the major source.

Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is more popular than Entebbe International Airport in this regard, we have established, because the traffickers until recently, faced less scrutiny than they faced at Entebbe. courtesy of Interpol-Uganda, Uganda Police force (UPF) and other Ugandan security and intelligence agencies.

The traffickers also have agents in Kampala who help the girls and women to get passports in the shortest time possible. The trafficked range between 16 and 35 years of age, with 16 to 25 age category being the most sought after.

One of the girls, who we won’t name because she is still in custody of the traffickers, said she was trafficked from Kampala through Mbale up to Lwakaka from where she crossed into Kenya.

“We had to cross what looked like a river on foot. If someone had not been holding me I would have been swept away. I was scared and the water was very cold,” she said.

Another crossing exploited is the Malaba River. When the water levels drop, the girls are trafficked on foot. Some traffickers use small boats and canoes to move the girls at the border.

After crossing into Kenya, the girls’ passports are withheld and the girls are put on buses for the journey to Nairobi.

In Nairobi, they are kept at residences run by the traffickers as their documents are worked on. Sometimes the traffickers have to make do with fake stamps in the passports to facilitate the girls’ travel.

Some of the residences where the girls are kept are located in the Nairobi suburbs of Kasarani and Kayole.

The names of a one Bosco and Macharia features prominently as the facilitator at Busia border.

The traffickers keep 24-hour surveillance on the girls until after their flights take off.

When the girl arrives at the destination country in the Middle East, the trafficker receives their first pay cheque.

They continue to receive royalties throughout the girls’ stay and depending on the arrangement they have with the host family, business or individual.

Duped

To allay any fears among the girls being transported, the traffickers keep records of conversations with some of the girls doing well in the Middle East. They show these correspondences, photos and even make calls to the girls who talk of a good life where they live.

The traffickers also keep a tight grip on the families of the girls even after they are arrested for allegedly for a legal wrong and extort more money in some cases. A mother to a girl who is currently detained in Kenya had agreed to speak to our investigator but changed her mind after speaking to the agent who took her daughter.

“I am very busy and I don’t know how she travelled to Kenya. This is a small matter, I trust the people who took her and I have spoken to the other girls they took and they are happy where they are working,” the woman said.

When the investigator insisted on meeting her and offering her legal Aid, she kept giving us wrong directions until we gave up.

One of the girls trafficked from Kampala but arrested before she headed to Oman told us that her mother had paid $200 (Shs720,000) to a fictitious lawyer who was supposed to represent her during trial at the JKIA Airport Court. The lawyer did not turn up on two occasions. The girl appeared in court alone.

Another woman said her agent has so far tried to smuggle her to Oman twice through JKIA. On both occasions, she has been arrested.

The first time, the Kenyan immigration officer who arrested her asked the agent to pay Kshs50,000 (Shs1.7m) for each of the girls to be allowed through. The agent did not have the money at that time but paid the officer Kshs1,000 (Shs35,000) for each of the girls not to be put in custody.

On the next attempt, however, the girl was not lucky. She had been cleared and was moving her luggage when a JKIA officer became suspicious. She was arrested and detained before being released. By the time of our interview, she was contemplating a third attempt.

The cases

Legal Link International has registered a number of cases in Kenya (Nairobi and Mombasa county) through its member law firms. some lucky victims get off the hook after thorough interrogation and screening by kenya police, paralegals and lawyers.

LLI would do further BUT lack of cooperation between the victims parents in most cases mothers or other guardians to avail relavant information as they over rely on the trafficker's advances.

Some of the girls are released after they plead guilty; others are sentenced to fines or short prison terms.

Impersonation, however, attracts the largest fine with those convicted sent to more than a year in prison and more than Kshs200,000 or Shs7m in fines.

Two Ugandan women are doing time at Lang’ata Women’s Maximum Prison.

There are currently 44 Ugandan women incarcerated at the prison with more believed to be in other detention centres. Of these, 22 have already been convicted. The rest are still appearing before court.


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Stalkers could face 10yrs in jail as offenses surge in Britain

       Stalkers are to face a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail after the government bowed to pressure from a cross-party campaign to better protect victims.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says the maximum custodial sentence available to courts in England and Wales will double from five years when the tough new measures in the Policing and Crime Bill are adopted next week.

If the crime is racially or religiously aggravated, jail terms will also rise from seven to 14 years.
Stalkers devastate lives. We will double the maximum sentence from 5 to 10 years. Learn more: https://t.co/R75F2tQVXd

The Tory government had previously said five-year sentences were sufficient for the worst stalkers, but were defeated by Labour and crossbench peers in a key vote in the House of Lords just before Christmas.

A total of 194 people were convicted of stalking in 2015. The average custodial sentence was just over a year at 14.1 months, according to the Telegraph.

 Figures show stalking crimes have shot up by more than 30 percent since 2012, including many cases which occur on social media networks like Twitter and Facebook.

One in five women and one in ten men will be affected by stalking in their lifetime, according to estimates.
Announcing the reforms, Justice Minister Sam Gyimah said stalkers “torment their victims and can make everyday life almost unbearable.

“We are doubling the maximum sentences available to the courts so these awful crimes can be properly punished.

“We are also working across the criminal justice system to ensure mental health issues associated with these crimes are properly addressed.”

The change comes after a series of high profile stalking cases, including that of 31-year-old Alex Gray, who stalked popstar Lily Allen for seven years. He was finally sectioned under the mental health act last summer after breaking into Allen’s bedroom and threatening to “cut her with a knife.”

PL-MOJ-UK