Human Trafficking Report 2024: Uganda

The government maintained its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009 criminalizes sex and labor trafficking and provides penalties of up to 15 years' imprisonment for offenses involving adult victims and up to life imprisonment for those involving child victims. These penalties were sufficiently severe and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as kidnapping.

The Coordination Office for the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (COPTIP) remains responsible for compiling law enforcement data. COPTIP continued to report human trafficking “incidents,” ranging from simple investigations to in-depth police investigations; the government did not provide a breakdown of the different categories that constituted an incident or how many incidents resulted in full investigations. In 2023, the government reported investigating 1,006 incidents of human trafficking, compared to 1,200 incidents in 2022. The government reported prosecuting 589 suspected traffickers in 494 cases in 2023, compared to 728 people in 589 cases in 2022. Of the 589 alleged traffickers, 373 were charged with sex trafficking, 81 with labor trafficking, 32 with sex trafficking and forced labor, and 103 with unspecified forms of trafficking. The government reported continued prosecutions against 1,041 people in previous reporting periods. Courts convicted 130 traffickers under the 2009 anti-trafficking law, compared to 73 convictions in 2022. Of the 130 convictions, courts convicted 68 traffickers for sex trafficking, 31 for forced labor, and 31 for non-human forms of trafficking. specified. The courts sentenced the majority of traffickers to prison terms ranging from four to 16 years. During the previous period, courts often sentenced labor traffickers to lesser penalties, including fines instead of imprisonment. A court acquitted a defendant for unspecified reasons.

Corruption and the complicity of the authorities in trafficking crimes remain major concerns, hampering the action of law enforcement. Observers reported that police and immigration officials, particularly at airports and border crossings, accepted bribes to facilitate trafficking crimes or to warn traffickers of operations and imminent investigations. Media and senior government officials reported that senior officials may have owned or been associated with some labor recruitment companies suspected of trafficking. In 2023, the government prosecuted 12 officials – including police officers, corrections officers and public officials – involved in potential trafficking crimes; of the 12, three were new cases and nine were from previous reporting periods. Two of the 12 cases were dropped due to lack of evidence, and the remaining 10 were still ongoing at the end of the reporting period.

The UPF Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) had anti-trafficking units responsible for responding to trafficking crimes and coordinating law enforcement. In 2019, the UPF announced the creation of an anti-trafficking department within the CID; however, the department remained awaiting final approval from the Public Service Commission for the fourth consecutive year. While awaiting final approval and direct funding, the department relied on the resources of the UPF Department of Sexual Offenses and Children's Affairs. Officials continued to use an electronic application established by ODPP to facilitate communication between police and prosecutors and to share best practices in investigating and prosecuting human trafficking across the country. Law enforcement officials, in partnership with an NGO, continued to implement a mobile phone application to collect and disseminate standardized data relating to human trafficking investigations, prosecutions and convictions, enabling government agencies to track trafficking cases and trafficking trends nationally.

The government, in partnership with NGOs and international organizations, trained police, border officials, immigration officials and community elders on anti-trafficking law, investigative strategies focused on victims and the procedures for identifying and referring victims. The government continued to strengthen training for investigators on evidence collection to ensure the collection of solid evidence in cases where survivors choose not to testify. The training sessions led by ODPP, COPTIP and UPF reached at least 1,786 stakeholders at different levels of government. Despite training, some Ugandan police and immigration officials continued to lack an understanding of the anti-trafficking law and may have misclassified trafficking cases as other crimes or collected insufficient evidence for trafficking cases to proceed. give rise to prosecution. Due to the limited availability of shelter and other protections, the government often quickly repatriated foreign victims before obtaining their testimony, which continued to prevent the completion of trials. The government lacked the resources and personnel to sufficiently combat domestic and transnational trafficking crimes. The government collaborated with the governments of Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, the People's Republic of China, Tanzania, Thailand and the Ethiopia in connection with investigations and prosecutions relating to trafficking. The government has worked with the governments of Kenya and Tanzania to train border authorities to mitigate human trafficking at ports. Officials from ODPP, COPTIP and UPF participated in a regional forum with officials from Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya to collaborate on several security issues, including multilateral efforts to identify and guide victims of trafficking to services.