In Uganda, monitoring teams intercept hundreds of potential victims each month to prevent them from being trafficked. One of these monitors, Peter, has a unique reason for being so skilled at the work he does, catching these trafficking situations before irreversible harm can be done: he was once a trafficker himself.
Poverty fuels trafficking on both ends—both for the victims who are desperate for the chance at a better life and sometimes for traffickers too, as they become willing to resort to crime in order to make an income to care for themselves or their own families.
A jobless graduate
In 2016, Peter graduated from school and, like many other recent graduates, had been desperately searching for a job. He applied to various jobs online, but nothing was working out.
During this time, he reconnected online with an old friend from school and asked if they knew of any job opportunities. To his delight, the friend did have a job for him.
“I can’t promise I’ll be paying you monthly, but come to Nairobi in Kenya,” he said.
Peter, excited at the prospect of finally having a job, obediently traveled from Uganda to Kenya. In his eagerness and hope, he overlooked the fact that his friend had given him no details about the job itself. He had no way of knowing what would lie ahead.
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Introduction to a dark trade
When Peter arrived at his friend’s place, he entered the small rented room and immediately saw at least eight girls there. They were waiting for tickets and visas to travel to Oman for work.
This turned out to be the job—picking the girls up from the bus station, creating fake stamps and visas for their passports, and using bribes to get them through airport security and safely onto a plane to their destination. Peter’s friend taught him how to do everything—even tricks like walking two meters apart from the girls at the bus station to avoid raising suspicions from the officers that stood watch.
Apart from the fake stamps, passports, and bribery, two other factors made Peter question if the girls were being trafficked. One was that his friend didn’t let them go outside for fresh air, but kept them trapped inside and dealt harshly with them. The second was that some of them figured out how to get in contact with him after they arrived at their destination, saying, “I’m suffering; these people are mistreating me. Why did you lie to me?”
The morally questionable nature of the job weighed heavily on Peter.
“I felt so tortured, but then I had nothing to do,” he said.
He felt he had no other options. Fortunately, God had other plans.
Caught red-handed—twice
One day, Peter’s friend left on a trip, promising to continue giving instructions while away. Several weeks turned into several months. He never returned. In this way, Peter took over the business without really intending to.
Peter was unaware that police had been investigating his friend for human trafficking. When the friend left, the police figured out that Peter had taken over and began investigating him, too.
As Peter walked to the bus station to collect the newest girls arriving for transport, undercover police followed him unnoticed. They handcuffed him and brought him to the police station under charges for human trafficking.
“I kept on pleading with them. I was like, ‘Me? I'm just this young man trying to survive,’” Peter recalled.
He tried calling his friend for help, but the man had shut off his phone—Peter was left alone. The police insisted they were not going to be bribed and that he would go to prison for over ten years, but one officer relented and allowed him to be released on a bribe, telling him to leave Nairobi.
But Peter, still feeling like he had no other options, went straight back to work. Two days later, he was arrested again, pleaded with the same officer, and was released again.
Traffickers getting free on a bribe is nothing new to Love Justice teams—indeed in some areas, it is quite common. It’s one of the reasons staff work hard to build positive relationships with police—to make sure traffickers face the consequences for their crimes. But in Peter’s case, his second arrest and release seemed to finally wake him up, leading to major transformation in his life.
“I kept praying for a week,” he said. “I kept on asking myself so many questions. I asked God if there is any way He can give me a job rather than a job that is so illegal that it may make me lose my life.”
He got a job at a store in Kenya until the store stopped doing well; then he used what he had saved to get back home to Uganda.
Redemption
In Uganda, he took a low-paying, hard labor job at a fish market. He went to a local church to pray regularly with a coworker there, and through a series of connections and the providence of the Lord, ended up applying for a job with Love Justice to be a monitor fighting human trafficking.
In a nerve-racking interview process before a panel of eight interviewers, it seemed that God was with him.
“But then I had courage with me,” he said of the interview. “I was so strong. I had the confidence in me. Whatever they could ask, I could answer. I didn't hide [anything]. I told them about the trafficking stuff I was doing [before] and I wanted to change my life.”
Peter now uses his previous experience as a trafficker to help him track down potential victims and get them to safety. Since joining Love Justice in October 2022, he has helped stop over 300 people from being trafficked. (Pictured: Peter on a motorbike, monitoring for potential victims of human trafficking with Love Justice Uganda).
Peter’s heartfelt words about his faith in God and his passion for his work are inspiring:
“So along the way … working some casual jobs, I didn't know that God was preparing me to come and stand with a certain organization that will help in rescuing victims of human trafficking. … Like you can still use the tactics you were using to traffic to know who the traffickers are and stop them. … It's God who gave me this job. … I feel like I was chosen among the many to come and do this work of rescuing victims of human trafficking.
“We continue rescuing these souls because it's a reality; I've seen it. It's a reality; I've gone through it. It's a reality; I've done it. So let's keep fighting; let's keep doing whatever it takes, having faith in God by praying. I normally pray before I go to work, and I pray after coming from work. It all gives me strength. It all gives me the energy to do what is right.”
(Pictured: Peter [back middle] with the Love Justice Uganda teams)
Peter’s journey from trafficker to defender is a powerful testament to the transformative power of faith and redemption. Through Love Justice, he now uses his past to protect others, bringing light to places of darkness. His story reminds us that change is possible, even in the most challenging situations, and that with God’s guidance, anyone can make a difference.
Join us in this fight against human trafficking. Together, we can create more stories of hope and transformation. Will you stand with us?
*All data and statistics current at the date and time of publishing. Some names and some specific locations excluded for privacy and security purposes.
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