The authorities in Kyotera district are concerned about the presence of illegal recruitment agents, saying they are responsible for the persistence of cases of child labour and cross-border human trafficking in the area.
The agents, according to authorities, operate in form of cartels spread out in nearby urban areas on either side of Mutukula- the Uganda-Tanzania border, where they link children to different people, who exploit them for casual labour.
Kyotera District Vice Chairperson Agnes Namusiitwa says that they are recording a spike in cases of child labour including children who are engaged in nasty jobs.
She says that the problem is affecting children from Kyotera and Rakai districts and their counterparts from Tanzania
She says that on a monthly average at least 12 children some as young as nine years are recruited by clandestine local brokers that operate within the communities, who eventually link them to employers on either side of the border. Ms. Agnes on labor export…
She explains that the victims are usually hired as hawkers, shop attendants, domestic workers, and in plantations while in worst-case scenarios, victims have been trafficked into commercial sex. END.