Source: The Monitor
A parliamentary committee is investigating security companies suspected of exporting Ugandans into domestic and sexual slavery abroad amid mounting concern over the country's complicity in human trafficking.

The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development was tasked with the investigation on February 8, after a petition was tabled in Parliament by Elijah Okupa, the Kasilo County MP.

The resulting committee is expected to table its report in mid-March. The petition focuses on Uganda Veterans Development Ltd (UVDL) - the company accused of exporting 147 Ugandan women into Iraqi domestic slavery in 2009.

Although the government monitored the 20 companies registered by the labour ministry after initial reports of trafficking surfaced, UVDL's licence has since been reissued. At least 100 of the Ugandan women they sent to Iraq remain unaccounted for.

Mr Okupa says bringing companies at home to bear is the only way to prevent more Ugandans from ending up in forms of modern slavery abroad.

"Ugandans should be able to know which labour export companies are genuine and which ones are fake," he said.

The testimonies of some of the 18 women who have been repatriated to Uganda from Iraq tell of being raped, tortured, and over worked.

Slavery

"This is slavery. I cannot see my fellow Ugandans going through this treatment," said Mr Okupa. "We cannot allow this to continue."

All of the women affected are being represented in a case filed last March against UVDL, the Attorney General (AG), the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

The suit charges the government respondents with neglecting their constitutional duties to protect and defend. The AG has put in a defence denying liability, the DPP has referred the matter to police, while the IGP has not responded, says Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, the women's lawyer.

Mr Rwakafuuzi says the suit is also an effort to put the country's dormant anti-trafficking legislation to work, and to encourage state prosecution.

He said the screening of partner companies abroad is also needed, though that liability rests with security companies at home.

But he is skeptical, and says political connections reign supreme in labour exportation, a field known for being a top foreign exchange earner in Uganda.

Though the Trafficking in Persons Act became law in 2009, no one to date has been prosecuted under it despite 16 ongoing investigations, according to the US State Department.

"If government had heeded this then, we could have plugged some of these loopholes," Mr Rwakafuuzi said. "It is getting worse everyday."

• Uganda