SECURITY CALLS FOR PUBLIC VIGILANCE TOWARDS HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Toko Swaib Arua RDC speaking to stakeholders during an engagemenet on Human Trafficking. Photo by Godwin Abedican.
 
By Godwin Abedican
 
Arua
 
The heads of security in Arua district and city are calling for alertness from the public in regards to human trafficking.
 
Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit and it targets Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds.
 
With West Nile region having over 300 illegal border crossing points with South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, much as a lot of crossings take place along these porous borders, the cases of human trafficking remain under-reported on the region.
 
Kumakech Salim the RCC Arua is therefore calling for a concerted effort by all stakeholders towards fighting human trafficking.
 
“All of us in one way or the other are victims of trafficking or we are potentially prone to trafficking. Therefore, when we are discussing matters of trafficking, we need to pay attention to it. We need to take the elements of trafficking very seriously. The socioeconomic impact it puts in the society is quite enormous. The image it raises on the community is quite heavy. So, it shouldn’t be an issue of one particular institution for that matter, in as far as combating vices such as trafficking in persons is concerned,” he urged.

This vice is silently endangering the lives of people and placing their security at stake.

Kumakech Salim, Arua RCC  during the engagemenet on Human Trafficking. 
Photo by Godwin Abedican.

Toko Swaib, the Resident district commissioner Arua, voices concerns about the youth who are more targeted by the traffickers.

“This is an emerging crime against humanity caused by vulnerability of poverty and ignorance. The component of ignorance has been added by the growth in technology where many people have become experts. So many of our youth are usually lured through these online arrangements. When you tell them what they want to do is wrong they will think they are already ahead. The moment they have these gadgets in their hands, they think they are on top of the world and that explains partly why today most of our victims ae actually the energetic youth. You will hardly find old people running after these things,” Toko said.

In west Nile the vice is not commonly reported to the authorities with statistics indicating that between January and October this year less than 10 cases of direct trafficking are reported prompting the security leaders to call for vigilance.

According to Bayo Diana, the Attorney Lawyer, Redeem International, it is very hard for the court to sometimes handle cases of trafficking since they are errored right from the investigations by the police due to lack of knowledge.

“In most cases, these cases are thrown out of court. There is also being taken to court but not securing a conviction.  Convictions are not being secured because there are always no evidences. Court is evidence based. So, to me, training of police officers on what evidence to look out for in trafficking cases is very important because they will look for the ingredients of trafficking. Why they are jumping from these cases to defilement and other cases is because they know these offences and know what ingredients to look out for, but if we go ahead to train the police officers on what to look out for while collecting evidence, it will go a long way in the pushing for  convictions,” Bayo proposed.

The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.

Human trafficking is condemned as a violation of human rights by international conventions, but legal protection varies globally. The practice has millions of victims around the world.