Let’s rid Nkrumah Circle of beggars, destitute
The disturbing resurgence of street beggars, women, infants, and young children at the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and other major locations in Accra is more than a social nuisance.
Barely six months after the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) removed over 2,200 persons in a bold attempt to restore order and protect vulnerable children, the situation has not only returned but appears to be spiralling.
The scenes at Circle and the Obetsebi Lamptey Interchange are nothing short of heart-breaking. Children weaving dangerously between moving vehicles; mothers nursing babies under scorching sun; teenagers openly smoking marijuana and consuming hard liquor.
What should be public infrastructure has been reduced to makeshift homes for destitute families and a playground of risk for children who deserve far better.
This cycle of removal and reappearance, now familiar, predictable and deeply worrying, exposes a truth we have long refused to confront: our approach to street begging is unsustainable, short-sighted and institutionally weak.
The GIS operation, though commendable in intention, was only a bandage placed over a festering wound. Repatriation alone was never going to cure a problem rooted in poverty, human trafficking, weak inter-agency coordination and a glaring lack of social protection systems.
As Child Rights International’s Executive Director rightly points out, the absence of sustained rehabilitation and reintegration left a vacuum that naturally pulled these vulnerable families back to the streets.
When there is no shelter system robust enough to accommodate them, no effective supervision of children’s homes, no long-term social support, and no coordinated national strategy, we create conditions that force them to return to the only place where survival, however perilous, is guaranteed.
The traders and pedestrians who bear daily witness to this tragedy are justified in their frustration. The presence of street children on busy roads is both a safety hazard and a public health concern.
Yet beyond the inconvenience lies a moral responsibility. Ghana cannot claim progress while infants grow up under bridges and children risk their lives between bumpers and brake lights.
The Ghanaian Times is of the view that what we need now is not another sporadic swoop, but a comprehensive, multi-agency plan that addresses root causes: trafficking networks, poverty, homelessness, addiction, inadequate child protection, and poor social welfare infrastructure.
The Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare, Ghana Police Service, GIS and relevant NGOs must align their roles with proper funding and clear accountability.
We cannot continue to recycle temporary fixes. Each child who returns to the street represents a failure of the system meant to protect them. Each mother begging with an infant signals a social protection gap we have refused to confront.
Accra deserves relief from lawlessness and disorder. But more importantly, the children of Ghana, irrespective of nationality, deserve safety, dignity and hope.
The time for half-measures has passed. We must stop managing this crisis in cycles and finally commit to ending it.
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