Supporting the anti-child trafficking agenda to safeguard children’s rights

THE menace of child trafficking continues to thrive in Ghana and demands as a matter of urgency a course of action to bring it to an end.

The predicament involves the harbouring and or receipt, transfer or kidnapping of a child for the purposes of exploita­tion, adoption, forced labour or slavery.

This dehumanising situation has over the years led to the loss of many lives, destroyed many destinies and financially drained the government, civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The United Nations (UN) has described it as a dreadful crime and an assault on people’s rights, safety and dignity.

António Guterres, UN Secre­tary-General on the eve of last year’s World Day against Traf­fick¬ing in Persons emphasised that human trafficking was a problem that was affecting wom­en and girls particularly.

“Tragically, it is also a problem that is growing worse – es­pecially for women and girls, who rep¬resent the majority of detected trafficked persons globally,” he stated.

Similarly, the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa in a speech read on his behalf at a conference organised by the International Justice Mission (IJM), last year, said that human trafficking was a threat to Gha­na’s human resources.

According to him, the Volta Lake had been identified as one of the places where human trafficking remained prevalent as they often received reports that fishermen persistently recruited school-going children as young as six years and engaged them on the lake to fish for them.

Dr Letsa said these recruit­ments were done with the tacit support of parents of children, while others were recruited by deceit of the traffickers who promise to take good care of them.

The Minister explained that in order to fight this social menace, Parliament enacted the Human Trafficking Act 2005(Act 694) to criminalise the act but the en­forcement of the law remained a challenge due to the lack of logistics to facilitate the activities of the police, who were sup­posed to visit islands and other unmotorable communities to investigate and effect arrest of suspects.

Again, Ghana’s 2022 Traffick­ing in Persons Report by the United States (US) Department of State indicates that traf¬fick­ers exploit Ghanaian children in forced labour within the coun¬try in inland and coastal fishing, domestic service, street hawking, begging, portering, artisanal gold mining, quarrying, herding, and farming.

The report reiterates that traffick¬ers exploit children as young as four in forced labour on the Volta Lake and use vio­lence and limited access to food to control their victims.

It said that traffickers force boys to work in hazardous conditions, including deep diving while girls perform work on­shore, such as preparing the fish for markets.

Further, Dr Rita Owu­su-Amank¬wah, consultant for a research report by Solidari­dad, an international NGO, in discussing the report during the validation of Child Labour Eradication Framework for the Small-Scale mining sector in Accra in February, this year, esti­mated that about 5,677 children engaged in mining activities.

She said that children in mining were mostly engaged in illegal activities because the law does not permit mining compa­nies to employ children.

Dr Owusu-Amankwah said the situation exposed the chil­dren to the hazardous nature of the work of mining, its impact on their health and education, and posed a negative image of Ghana’s gold on the internation­al gold market.

She noted that, although several laws and policy measures had been put in place with the aim of realising constitutional and moral obligations for the protection of children from abuse and exploita¬tion, the practice still persisted in mining communities.

As such, Dr Owusu-Amank­wah indicated that the imple­men¬tation of the National Plan of Action (NPA) 1 and 2, Strategy on Anti Child labour and Trafficking in Fisheries, and Caring Gold Min¬ing Project for the Mining Sector were some of the interventions which was helping to address the menace.

More so, data available to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection shows that the number of human trafficking cases shot up from 587 in 2020 to 831 in 2021, indicating an increase of 244.

It said that cases under inves­tigation had increased from 87 in 2020 to 108 in 2021, while prosecution cases increased from 13 in 2020 to 22 in 2021.

ACTIONS

The government has over the years collaborated with NGOs and foreign donors to provide extensive training to law en­forcers, judicial officials, and frontline workers on trafficking definitions and legal concepts, investigative techniques, and victim protection.

A total of 14 human traffick­ers, including two sex and 12 labour traffickers, were convicted under the anti- trafficking law in 2021.

Out of the number, 11 traf­fickers (79 per cent) received a sentence of at least one year of imprisonment, the country’s 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report by the US Department of State said.

According to the report, courts prosecuted and convicted three defendants for exploitative child labour under the Children’s Act of 1998.

It said two of the three defendants were fined and did not receive prison sentences, and one defendant received the option for a fine in lieu of six months’ imprisonment, which did not serve to deter the crime or adequately reflect the nature of the crime.

This is compared with pros­ecu¬tions of 22 alleged labour traffick¬ers and convictions of 13 labour traffickers in 2020.

The 2022 Trafficking in Per­sons Report said that the gov­ernment initiated investigations of 108 trafficking cases in 2021, including 60 labour trafficking cases, 42 sex trafficking cases.

In some cases, the report said the government prosecuted alleged traffickers under the Children’s Act when there was insufficient evi¬dence to attain a conviction under the anti-traf­ficking law.

It stated that the government did not report any investigations, pros¬ecutions, or convictions of govern¬ment employees allegedly complicit in human trafficking crimes.

However, official corruption and complicity in trafficking crimes remained concerns, in­hibiting law enforcement action during the year.

Also, organisations like IJM Ghana work with law enforce­ment and government agencies to rescue children who have fall­en victims to child trafficking on the Volta Lake, rehabilitate such victims and facilitate the prose­cution of the perpetrators.

Mr Foster Worlanyo, National Director of Advocacy and Part­nership of IJM Ghana, last year said his outfit had partnered with relevant government agencies since 2015 to ensure the rescue of 366 victims and the arrest of 228 perpetrators.

Out of this number, he said 47 have been successfully prosecut­ed and 163 of these victims have been successfully rehabilitated.

WAY FORWARD

The fight against human trafficking cannot be left for a specific agency or organisation to combat alone. It must be a collaborative activity particularly among the security agencies.

Other stakeholders including chiefs, pastors, and assembly members must also be mobilised and made to assist the law en­forcement agents to end human trafficking in communities.