I’m in Uganda this week in my role as Senior Legal Advisor to the CPA-UK, with a team from the British Parliament’s Modern Slavery Project to work with visionary Ugandan MPs who are seeking to strengthen human trafficking & anti-slavery legislation.

On Monday (picture above) we met with community leaders and police in Soroti, in the eastern part of the country, to gain input from local stakeholders. We’ve been discussing the high incidence of cases involving the sale of children, slavery & servitude of vulnerable adults, Karamojong children forced into begging & the massive numbers of Ugandan youth who fall prey to human trafficking by recruitment companies promising legitimate work in the Middle East.

There are daily heartbreaking reports of brutalisation, torture, death, including cases concerning the forcible removal of organs. On Tuesday and Wednesday we participated in talks in Kampala with the Speaker of the Houses of Parliament, the Clerk to Parliament, with Ministers, MPs, Committee Chairpersons, NGOs and other distinguished stakeholders and we will continue our meetings today.

We are grateful to MPs the Rt Hon Herbert Ariko, the Rt Hon Agnes Kunihira and the Rt Hon Maurice Kibalya for inviting us to provide legal & technical support for their Private Members Bill.