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14 August 2015
- From the section Africa
At least 30 of about 100 South Asians stranded in Uganda in a suspected trafficking case are preparing to return home, police say.
The Indians and Bangladeshis say they were cheated by an alleged trafficker and abandoned in hotels in the capital, Kampala, local media reports.
They say they were promised jobs in other African countries, with Uganda only intended as a stopover.
The authorities are providing 30 of them with passports and tickets home.
Police have already arrested the wife of the main trafficking suspect, who is thought to be linked to the alleged scam.
They are looking for three further suspects, who have gone missing.
Members of the group told local media that they each paid between $2,000 and $2,500 (£1,300 and £1,600) as part of their deal with the alleged trafficker.
Kampala was only supposed to be a stopover before they headed to take up jobs that had been promised in other African countries like South Africa, Sudan and even South Sudan, which is currently in the midst of a civil war.
When the alleged trafficker and his associates disappeared, the group were left stranded without passports or travel documents and without enough money to foot the mounting hotel bills they had racked up.
The suspects will face charges of “people trafficking, obtaining money on false pretences and forgery,” Moses Binoga, the police commissioner in charge of the counry’s Anti-Human Trafficking unit, told the private television station NTV.
