Alliance in Motion Global employee arrested for trafficking in persons

The police in Kampala have arrested a lady identified as Komwaka Jamia an employee of Alliance in motion Global company limited following a report from Ministry of Gender Labour and Social development.

CID Spokesperson Twine Chrles Mansio says Komwaka was arrested in Thursday. Officials from the Ministry of Gender visited CID offices in Kibuli last week with two girls aged 17 and 18 years respectively who had been recruited from Ssembabule district and brought to Kampala on promise that they would be given a job at a salary of Shs 400,000 per month.

“The girls came to Kampala and reached in a place located in Komamboga and were accommodated in a hall with other girls and boys they found in the same place. They were given some marketing training skills on a daily basis, to market Chinese food supplements” Twine says.

The girls also told detectives that after training, management asked them to buy hampers at a cost of Shs 900,000 which they could not afford.

One of the recruits was a nurse from Tororo who escaped and later called to convince the two girls to also leave, suspecting that the company was engaged in some criminality.

“These girls were being told to pay Shs. 900,000 for a hamper which they did not have and on consultation with their parents, they were advised to leave. They got in touch with their Auntie who stays around Agenda 2000 who coordinated with them and they escaped from Komamboga using a boda boda” Twine narrates.

The auntie sent these girls to Ministry of Gender and the officials at the ministry suspected cases of human trafficking, hence the decision to take the girls to CID. Their statements have been recorded and they were accommodated at the police shelter and detectives visited the place in Komamboga where at least 200 youths in the average age of 20 years were found.

According to Twine, some of the girls had been at the facility for over one year and did not benefit anything. When interrogated, the caretaker of the facility and facilitators said they were training them to market the Chinese food supplements that belong to Alliance in Motion Global company limited and that the products are supplied to them by their absentee Philippine Directors.

Police retrieved 9 girls and 4 boys who looked underage and one suspect was arrested. Detectives also impounded some of the products that were being marketed which include weight loss and energizers among others. Twine says none of the products had the UNBS seal.

“These girls were recruited by deception and they are being exploited. Given that kind of background, we are charging them with trafficking in persons which is provided for under the Anti-trafficking in persons Act” Twine added.

He cautioned parents against giving away their children to people they do not know, but rather send them back to school.