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 One of the victims being rescued by the police
One of the victims being rescued by the police

Twenty four Trafficked children rescued

Twenty-four children who were trafficked to serve as child slaves on the Volta Lake in the Volta Region have been rescued.

The children, aged between seven and 16, who were serving as child slaves to fishermen on the lake, were rescued in an extraordinary operation by the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

Other collaborators in the operation are the Marine Police Unit, the Eastern Regional Police Command, the International Justice Mission (IJM) and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The IJM is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) that focuses on the protection of the poor from violence in the developing world.

Meanwhile, 16 people suspected to be behind the trafficking of the children have been arrested.

Rehabilitation

Following the successful operation, the rescued children have been taken to the IJM’s rehabilitation centre where they are currently going through rehabilitation.

The IJM is also supporting the Department of Social Welfare and some orphanages in the country to provide housing, care, education and support for the rescued children as part of their restoration and rehabilitation process before they are reintegrated into their families.

The police said they were making efforts to find the parents of the children.

Collaborative effort 

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Director-General of the CID, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Bright Oduro, said the rescue operation was in line with the Police Administration’s collaborative effort to end child trafficking and forced labour on the Volta Lake and in other parts of the country.

He lauded the expansive cooperation among the Ministry of Gender and the police.

“That confirms that when we work together, we can successfully take down those who prey on our most vulnerable and profit from them,” Mr Oduro said.

Offence

Human trafficking, he said, is a criminal offence under the Human Traffic Act, 2005 (Act 694) and advised the public, especially parents, to desist from the illegal practice of trafficking their children.

“Human trafficking is illegal; it is a crime and parents or guardians are advised not to allow their children to be trafficked or sold into forced labour for monetary gains,” he stressed.

He also observed that in some cases the child traffickers approached some parents and guardians in rural areas under the pretext of helping them with the upkeep of their children and educating them in good schools in the cities, only for the children to be sold as slaves.

According to Mr Oduro, to eradicate the menace of child trafficking, there was the need for community leaders to come on board by making a firm commitment not to entertain the trafficking of children in their communities.

“They must report any incident of child trafficking and forced labour to the police for swift action,” he said.

Ghana’s status

Child trafficking in the fishing industry has been a problem for the government for years.

It is estimated that there are over 21,000 children working on the Volta Lake alone, while thousands of children undergo various forms of abuse in the hands of slave masters.

In 2005, Ghana passed the Human Trafficking Law, making human trafficking a criminal offence, punishable by at least  five years’ imprisonment.

In 2016, Ghana was classified as a Tier 2 Watch List country in the Trafficking in Persons (TiP) Report released by the US State Department, following the government’s inability to demonstrate enough effort to prevent human trafficking, prosecute criminals and protect victims.

The American government has warned that the country risks losing millions of money in aid if no effort is taken to address the situation.

To win the fight against the menace, a number of NGOs have been collaborating with the police to rescue trafficked children from their slave masters from mostly fishing and farming communities. 

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