Punish forced labour offenders severely - Stakeholders
Stakeholders at a seminar on forced labour have advocated the escalation of penalties meted out to offenders.
According to the Labour Act, anyone convicted of forced or compulsory labour is liable to a fine not exceeding 250 penalty units.
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The stakeholders who were speaking at the seminar in Accra yesterday, however, said the punishment was not deterrent enough, hence the need to step it up.
They included the police, lawyers, the International Labour Organisation, the Judicial Service, civil society organisations and the media.
The seminar, which was organised by the International Justice Mission (IJM), sought to look into how the nation was dealing with issues of forced labour which refers to situations in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation.
Among topics discussed were implications of forced labour on national and international markets, public justice system and its significance in addressing forced labour and the role of the media in addressing forced labour.
They also urged the media to scale up their reportage on forced labour-related stories.
A Deputy Director at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Superintendent of Police William Ayaregah, said: "To make the punishment severe, fines should be added to jail terms”.
“Some people have enough money to pay so they may not feel the severity of the punishment. Custodial sentences and increased fines are the way to go.
“Law enforcement agencies and all relevant stakeholders need to be trained more in this area to understand the dynamics of the menace to help in the fight,” he said.
A Court of Appeal Judge, Justice Mensah-Datsa, said that subtle means of committing crimes such as manipulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to immigration authorities were hard to detect for offenders to be penalised.
“These things are hard to see, so evidence should be presented in a way that guarantees conviction; they should be satisfiable beyond reasonable doubts,” she advised.
Human rights
The Cocoa Programme Director of IJM, Justin Van Dalen, said forced labour was a human rights issue that needed to be given much attention at all levels.
The ILO representative in Ghana, Kwame Mensa, also said if issues of forced labour were not taken seriously, it would increase exploitation in the country.
“You can only appreciate trade when you know what is being traded; international trade is good but there is that element of favoured labour.
“When this happens, only the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You will realise that only the Gross Domestic Product of the economy will grow while exploitation and human rights abuse will be on the high,” he said.
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