Meanwhile, the police CID department has opened a special file on matters relating to Ugandan girls trafficked to Dubai and forced into sex trade.
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In November 2021, Shadia Nampijja flew off to Dubai after paying sh3m to pursue the job of a waitress promised to her by agents.
On arrival, Nampijja together with colleagues she had travelled with, forcibly surrendered their passports, whereafter they were given the bad news that the job of waitresses for which they had been taken, had been occupied.
They were advised to take on whatever job available, and Nampijja got the job of a house girl but after only one month, her employer discharged her saying he had not been impressed by her performance. Sadly, she was not even paid for the one month she worked.
After days and nights of weeping, a colleague she had travelled with to Dubai advised her to join her in the sex trade for the sake of continued survival. Many of the girls in her category were sleeping under one roof on a bare floor.
Nampijja says she struggled to collect money to fly back home but she did not have her passport yet the agent demanded that she could only regain it after paying him sh3m spent on her travel expenses.
“Confiscation of the passport is one trick to force you to submit to their demands of making you join the sex trade,” she sadly disclosed.
Family members of the late Monica Karungi say that she underwent a similar fate and that on refusal, the agents pushed her off a storeyed building leading to her death. The deceased’s mother, Mable Kasarikazi of Kahanje village, Kyempara sub-county in Isingiro district said they have failed to bring her body back and appealed to the government to give a helping hand.
Sharon Kemigisha who did not divulge much of the traumatizing story, said she went through a similar treatment in Oman, and simply ends by saying that it is by God’s Luck that she came back in one piece.
Three other girls, Judith Nuwasiima (25), Patricia Nambwayi (23), and Patience Nabirye (22), died in Saudi Arabia but their parents say the agents who took them have declined to disclose what led to their death.
Unconfirmed reports put it that they died in an accident as they were being transported from the office where they were staying to their new places of work. Some girls have revealed that they are always on the run following unending security operations from work places and on streets.
They add that lucky ones who may be able to pay some kickbacks, are given fake identities showing that they are working for individuals they have never met, which they claim, offers them protection against the round up operations.
This however, has been discovered by authorities and that identity or no identity, all foreigners are jailed and asked to produce whoever may have given them the identities. If such a person comes and fails to prove beyond doubt that you are his or worker, they are also arrested.
Meanwhile, the police CID department has opened a special file on matters relating to Ugandan girls trafficked to Dubai and forced into sex trade.
Police spokesperson, Kituuma Rusoke confirmed that the file was opened up at the CID headquarters located within the CPS. He appeals to whoever may have information regarding this issue to approach them, and gives assurances that the matter will be treated as a secret.
In a related development, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has asked the Ministry for Gender and Community Development to come up with a report on Ugandan girls trafficked and forced into sex trade abroad.
Deputy Speaker of parliament, Thomas Tayebwa and leader of opposition Joel Ssenyonyi who were very tough sounding, demanded that something concrete be done to save the poor girls, some of whom they said, die in the process.