Ghana has been officially upgraded to Tier 1 in the U.S. Department of State's 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
Published on 8 October 2026, this historic advancement marks Ghana's return to the top tier after seven years on the Tier 2 watch lists and rankings. A Tier 1 status signifies that the Ghanaian government now fully meets the minimum standards required for the elimination of human
This follows an increase in prosecutions and victim identification, although inadequate shelters, recruitment fee practices and gaps in cybercrime investigations remain major challenges.
The US Department of State’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report said Ghana met the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Ghana’s previous ranking was Tier 2 in the 2025 US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. The country had maintained that ranking for seven consecutive years.
Tier 1 is the highest category in the assessment and signifies that a government is considered to be fully meeting the minimum standards for combating trafficking. However, the ranking does not mean that trafficking has been eradicated or that the country has no outstanding challenges.
Countries in Tier 1 were expected to demonstrate continued progress each year to maintain the status.
The report said Ghana investigated 222 trafficking cases in 2025, down from 273 in 2024, while prosecutions of alleged traffickers rose from 65 to 212 over the same period.
The country secured 28 convictions, comprising 14 for sex trafficking and 14 for labour trafficking, compared with 25 convictions in 2024. Most convicted offenders received prison sentences of at least one year.
The government also continued 15 investigations and 14 prosecutions from previous years.
Cooperation
The report indicated that cooperation with INTERPOL and foreign governments led to the identification and repatriation of 756 foreign trafficking victims.
It said the government also signed a memorandum of understanding with QNET to help identify and dismantle online scam operations linked to fraudulent recruitment and forced labour.
More victims identified
The report said Ghana identified 2,331 trafficking victims in 2025, up from 794 in 2024.
They included 492 sex trafficking victims, 1,302 labour trafficking victims and 537 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking.
Of the total, 862 were Ghanaians and 1,469 foreign nationals, including 896 Nigerians. Other foreign victims came from Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Togo, Senegal, Niger and Benin.
It said the Ghanaian government also identified 567 Ghanaians exploited abroad and funded their voluntary repatriation. Authorities screened 2,837 returning migrants for trafficking indicators and referred identified victims for assistance.
Allocation
The government allocated GH¢3.452 million for direct victim services in 2025, up from GH¢2.85 million in 2024.
However, the report said shelter capacity remained inadequate, particularly for adult male victims. A shelter for adult female victims was also inoperable during the reporting period.
Recruitment and labour concerns
The report said Ghana conducted public awareness campaigns against fraudulent recruitment and online exploitation and signed labour agreements with Grenada and Qatar to strengthen employment protections for Ghanaian workers abroad.
However, the government had not prohibited recruitment fees charged to workers.
The report also noted that the number of Ghanaians reportedly exploited in Gulf countries continued to increase despite a 2017 ban on labour migration to those states.
Children remained vulnerable to forced labour in fishing, cocoa farming, domestic service, mining and street hawking. The report linked child labour in cocoa-growing communities to poverty, low cocoa prices and limited educational opportunities.
It also cited allegations of physical abuse, unpaid or underpaid wages, restricted medical care and poor living conditions involving Ghanaian workers aboard Chinese-owned industrial fishing vessels flagged to Ghana.
The report further cited accounts of Ghanaians being fraudulently recruited to fight for the Russian military in Ukraine through promises of well-paid jobs in security and agriculture.
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