[Ugnet] US: Region Struggling Against New Slavery

Angelina Atyam, co-founder of the Concerned Parents Association, "has worked tirelessly to provide support and assistance" to children victimised by the Lord's Resistance Army, the US State Department says in a new report on worldwide trafficking in persons.

Kenya and Tanzania are also commended for what the US sees as their enhanced efforts to combat the ongoing enslavement of many of their citizens.

The United States says that hundreds of thousands of women, children and men around the world are forced to work in their own countries or abroad as virtual slaves. They are transported against their will, "trafficked, by individuals and criminal syndicates, often for purposes of sexual exploitation."

Mrs Atyam was reunited last year with her own daughter, Charlotte Awino, who had been abducted by the LRA eight years earlier. During her time as a sex slave, the young woman had two children of her own, both of whom also escaped LRA captivity.

In keeping with her organisation's motto, "Every child is my child," Mrs Atyam continues to help Ugandan children who have been raped, mutilated and suffered other atrocities at the hands of the LRA, the State Department points out. Uganda generally receives high marks in the US report.

"The government aggressively engaged in anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts" during the past year, the report says. It notes the arrests of more than 3,000 people on charges involving sex with minors, with 336 of them being successfully prosecuted.

The report gives the impression that the LRA is responsible for most of the human trafficking that occurs in Uganda. But the State Department does note that "thousands of Ugandan children engaged in commercial sex." And it cites reports that Uganda is a destination for Indian women trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation.

Kenya and Tanzania made significant improvements last year in their respective anti-trafficking efforts, the report adds. Both countries have been removed from a "watch list" of states that, in Washington's view, are making no efforts to strengthen their anti-trafficking capacities and could thus be subject to US sanctions.

Law enforcement efforts were intensified and assistance to victims was increased in both Kenya and Tanzania, the US observes.

Kenyan officials are said to be conducting investigations into 20 cases of trafficking, including one in which Kenyan children were allegedly trafficked into Tanzania. The investigations are being carried out by a 10-member Human Trafficking Unit established last year by the Kenya Police.

Officials are also cracking down on a sex tourism industry that has taken root on the Coast, the report says. The Kenyan government now requires owners of tourist guest houses to register and to account for all their workers. Eight guest houses have been closed following trafficking investigations, which also resulted in assistance being provided to seven foreign children, the report indicates.

In Tanzania, three trafficking-related cases were brought to court last year, the US says. It also cites the case of a Tanzanian man arrested in April 2004 for bringing Indian dancers to Tanzania on artist visas and then exploiting them in prostitution. The women were deported but the case against the man was withdrawn for lack of evidence.

Tanzanian authorities last year rescued nearly 3,500 children who were being exploited as domestic labour, the report says. Nearly 4,000 additional children were prevented from being trafficked into similar situations, the report adds.

To make further progress against human trafficking, the US urges Kenya to prosecute more suspects and to improve its protective services for children engaged in prostitution. The Tanzanian government should likewise do more to help child victims and should also launch a nationwide awareness campaign on the definition of human trafficking and the forms it takes in Tanzania, the report says.

Trafficking in both Kenya and Tanzania remains widespread, according to the US report.

"Kenyan children are internally trafficked for forced domestic servitude, street vending, agricultural labour, and sexual exploitation," while Kenyan women are trafficked to the Middle East, other African countries and Western Europe. Children from Burundi and Rwanda are meanwhile taken to Kenya for purposes of sexual exploitation and unpaid labour, the report says.

Most Tanzanian victims are trafficked within the country, according to the report.

Boys are made to work on farms, in mines and jua kali industries, while girls, especially from the Iringa Region, are trafficked to towns for involuntary domestic labour.

"Many of these domestic workers flee abusive employers and turn to prostitution for survival," the report notes.

"Tanzanian girls are also reportedly trafficked to South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and possibly other European countries," the report adds

[Ugnet] US: Region Struggling Against New Slavery

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