An 11-year-old has been reunited with his family after traffickers abandoned him at a seaport in another country.
Edward (name changed) was on his way home from school when he was abducted by strangers who pretended to offer him a lift home. Instead, they drove for several hours, from his home country of Kenya into Uganda. He was found by police in an extremely vulnerable situation at a harbour and without any ID.
Isaac Mukumbwa, a social worker at Hope for Justice, said: “The port was close to a police checkpoint in Uganda. It is possible that the traffickers were fearful of the police and decided to abandon the child there. By the time the police found the child, much time had passed, and the traffickers were nowhere to be found.”
Police brought him to one of Hope for Justice’s Lighthouses for care and protection. Lighthouses are shelters for children who have been exploited, or who are at risk of modern slavery.
Meanwhile, Interpol’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in Uganda asked the Kenyan NCB for support to find Edward’s parents. When police managed to locate Edward’s family, Edward was repatriated and reunited with them.
