Human Trafficking in Uganda: What You Need to Know and How You Can Help Stop It

According to Uganda's Ministry of Internal Affairs Anti-Human Trafficking Department, 1,068 trafficking incidents were recorded in 2024, a rise from 1,006 in 2023. These incidents involved 4,965 identified victims - of whom 2,543 were children, representing approximately 79% of all victims identified. Officials from the Coordination Office to Prevent Trafficking in Persons (COPTIP) described this as "not just alarming but a national emergency."

Internal trafficking accounted for the majority (941) of these cases, with victims being moved from rural areas to cities - primarily Kampala - under false promises of employment, education, or opportunity. Kampala Metropolitan North recorded the highest case volume (114), followed by the Elgon region (94) and Masaka (73).

It is critical to understand that these figures represent only what has been formally documented. The U.S. State Department's 2025 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report notes that COPTIP lacks sufficient staffing and funding to fulfill its mandate - meaning a significant number of trafficking cases go unreported, uninvestigated, or unresolved. Of 659 cases that proceeded to court in 2024, 379 remain unresolved due to judicial delays and systemic challenges.

Women and girls make up the majority of trafficking victims in Uganda, particularly in labour trafficking, domestic servitude, and sexual exploitation. The drivers are structural: Uganda's female labour force participation rate is high, but women are concentrated in informal, low-paid, and precarious work. When household income collapses - through the death or departure of a male breadwinner, crop failure, illness, or sudden unemployment - women and girls face an acute survival gap that traffickers deliberately exploit.

Single mothers in urban and peri-urban areas (such as Kampala's informal settlements and surrounding districts) are particularly vulnerable. With no secondary income, no savings, and limited trade skills, the promise of a domestic job in Kampala or a "good position" in the Middle East can seem like the only viable path forward. This is the economic trap that trafficking thrives in - not naivety, but desperation.

The U.S. State Department's TIP Report notes that approximately 34% of Ugandan girls are involved in early or forced marriages - a figure that rises to 50% in the Karamoja region. Girls from Karamoja are specifically exploited in Nairobi's Eastleigh neighbourhood in forced labour and sex trafficking. Early marriage and dropout from school are both significant precursors to trafficking vulnerability.

Children represent the single largest identified victim group in Uganda's trafficking data - accounting for approximately 79% of all victims as of 2024. They are trafficked for forced labour (including domestic servitude, agriculture, and market work), sexual exploitation, and in some cases, recruitment into non-state armed groups. The Karamoja region sees adolescent boys trafficked into cattle raiding networks, while the IOM and Ugandan NGOs have reported cases of children recruited to join armed groups in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo under false pretences.

Children in households experiencing extreme poverty are most at risk. Families are sometimes complicit - not through malice, but through desperation - accepting payments or promises from recruiters who present themselves as offering children a better opportunity in a city or abroad. Community awareness about these deceptive recruitment patterns is one of the most effective prevention tools available.

A significant and growing dimension of Ugandan trafficking involves adults - predominantly women - who travel abroad for work, primarily to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, and Oman. These workers are recruited by employment agencies, some licensed and some fraudulent, and arrive to find conditions vastly different from what was promised: confiscated passports, no pay, physical abuse, and no ability to leave.

The U.S. State Department has specifically noted that "traffickers in Saudi Arabia regularly sell and trade Ugandan domestic workers using an online marketplace." To circumvent a 2016 Ugandan government ban on migrant labour travel to Oman, some agencies route workers through Kenya and Tanzania - increasing their debt bondage risk through higher travel fees. Several NGOs have also reported scams that lure Ugandan workers to Thailand before routing them to other destinations under exploitative conditions.

Trafficking prevention research consistently shows that the most durable interventions target root causes - the conditions of poverty, isolation, and lack of alternatives that make people vulnerable in the first place. This is exactly where Zuri Styles focuses.

Every purchase from Zuri Styles contributes directly to three things. First, skilled artisan employment for Ugandan women - primarily those in communities where vulnerability to trafficking is highest. When a woman earns a reliable income from her craft, the false promise of a "good job" in the Gulf or in Kampala loses its power. Second, vocational training - our training centre vision builds on the model that gave our founder's community their start, giving women trade skills that create lasting economic independence. Third, school fees for younger women - because we know that girls who stay in school are dramatically less likely to be trafficked, and because every sale you make is a direct line from your purchase to a girl's future.

This is what fair-trade means at Zuri Styles. Not a label. Not a box to check. The woman who made your earrings knows that you bought them, and your purchase is the reason her daughter is in school today.