Uganda women lured into Malay sex trade

KAMPALA, UGANDA

- Advertisements pinned on the walls of shopping malls in Uganda's capital promise young women a free ticket to a well-paying job in Malaysia as a nanny, maid or bartender.

Instead many are forced to become "sex slaves" to pay off travel fees and other costs, totaling as much as $7,000. The traffickers brainwash their victims into believing they may die if they quit.

Authorities say that nearly all of the prostituted girls have college degrees but have failed to find jobs in Uganda, where unemployment is high.

And Ugandan officials say it is hard to cripple a highly organized syndicate that preys on educated but vulnerable women, and then intimidates them into the kind of silence that hampers investigations.

"Some of the girls, when they reach here, we ask them to tell us what happened. And she says, 'I can't tell you; I will die.' They will never talk," said Asan Kasingye, chief of Interpol in Uganda.

A report released last week said that more than 600 Ugandan girls are trapped in Malaysian prostitution rings.