Human Traffickers Take Advantage over Children Studying Online, Parents Warned
The Ministry of Internal Affairs through National Cooperation Office for prevention of Trafficking in Persons in Uganda advised parents to take much care unto their children especially those studying online in this COVID-19 Pandemic era.
In his directives made in the last State of the nation address on Covid-19, the president of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ordered all schools to close for 42 days, this forced schools and high institutions of learning to switch to online teaching.
This would be good for students not losing their education track but according to Ministry of Internal Affairs, through it’s National Taskforce Committee for prevention of Trafficking in Persons, saw it that even the traffickers turned online to exploit children using Internet.
While addressing media on Tuesday at Silver Springs Hotel Bugoloobi about the 2020 report of Trafficking in Persons in Uganda, Deputy National Co-ordinator Prevention of Trafficking in Persons, Agnes Igoye advised parents to take a keen eye on their children especially those who use internet gadgets like phones and computers.
“We are in COVID-19 partial lockdown, our children are now at home, they are studying via online, some are idle, using Internet in anyway they want. This creates gap for traffickers who want to exploit them to take advantage. So I urge parents to take keen eye on children both boys and girls because they are potential victims.” Said Agnes Igoye.
“Human traffickers also turned online because they know it’s where now the kids are, they expose them to pornography and other sexual harassments, which lead to exploitation of the kids.
In our report, some girls were trafficked due to online deception and now they are victims.
In the report Agnes Igoye read to press, indicates that the cases of Trafficking in persons registered between January and December 2020 are; Aggravated human trafficking, human trafficking, attempted human trafficking and suspected human trafficking.
The report continues to say that a total of 214 incidents were registered in 2020 compared to 252 of 2019 giving a decrease of 15.1%.
However incidents of Internal trafficking were the highest with 118, representing 55.1%, transnational trafficking had 93 incidents representing 43.5% while 03 incidents of suspected trafficking 1.4% were unknown.
According to report, victims of trafficking in persons were at a total of 666 of whom 497 were victims of transnational trafficking, 166 were victims of Internal trafficking while three were unknown.
388 were female adults, 187 were female juveniles and 53 victims were male adults while 35 were male juveniles.
The forms of Exploitation for victims of trafficking, labor remains the biggest form, according to Igoye’s read report, it’s because of large number of unemployed youths and increased demand for semi-skilled labour in middle east countries.
The other victims, the report mentioned is the sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced begging and organ trafficking.
However, the report indicates that the Authorities have put measures in place to see that they fight the cause, and these include; having mutli-agency coordinated system involving several stakeholders, Ministries, agencies.
The report also shows that the ministry has managed to have awareness campaigns, recruiting members to fight the traffickers and advising those who want to get jobs abroad to pass through right channels.