A court sitting in Uganda has sentenced more than 100 women to one month of community service each after they confessed to sending their children to beg in the capital, Kampala.

The court has also banned the women from returning to the city and ordered that they be sent back to their home district of Napak in Northern Uganda.

In a judgement led by magistrate Edgar Karakire, sending the children to solicit or beg for alms is against Uganda’s child protection laws and carries a maximum sentence of six months.

The women had been detained since last month during a campaign to drive beggars out of the capital ahead of three summits that were held there, while the rescued children have been taken to the Masulita children’s village in central Uganda, which hosts rescued children.