Human trafficking is human rights violation - IOM Chief of Mission

The Chief of Mission of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Ms Dyane Epstein has described human trafficking as a gross violation of the most fundamental human rights.

She said, “The abuse, exploitation and violence visited upon so many trafficking victims is an indignity and shame for all of us. We must protect people, whoever they are and wherever they live, from this crime.”

Ms Epstein was speaking at a day's meeting on the assessment of human trafficking in Ghana attended by law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, MDAs NGOs amongst others. The meeting was organised by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs and sponsored by the Royal Danish Embassy and the IOM.

According to her, the meeting was of significant importance and that the dynamics of “this partnership amongst the government, the development partners and the civil society organizations is truly a best practice when governments develop the political will to address difficult problems such as human trafficking and irregular migration with intergovernmental organizations, as well as partners from non-governmental organizations and civil society, providing the technical expertise to complement government's efforts.”

“We know that combating human trafficking effectively is a difficult task, involving interventions for the protection and welfare of victims, effective prosecution of criminals, creation of legal migration channels, and supervision of labour markets, to name but a few. Yet we also know that difficult as the task may be, it is fundamentally important to carry it out, undaunted, with an unerring vision to make human trafficking a plague of the past,” she emphasised.

She challenged participants in the meeting to review and assess the progress made under the capacity building programme for Law Enforcement Agencies and the Judicial Authorities to combat human trafficking and irregular migration through and from Ghana.

Ms Epstein expressed the hope that “the outcome of this workshop will also inform on how well we worked together, and how closely we have managed to align political will and technical know-how for the benefit of fighting the irregular phenomena that threaten human dignity and the sovereignty of the State.”

She reminded the participants that “fighting trafficking contributes to a broader fight - against poverty, against the exploitation of migrants, against HIV/AIDS, and against gender discrimination. Fighting trafficking thus contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and building a better future for humanity.”

She recounted some of the efforts that had been made to address the problem of human trafficking:

“Eighteen judges participated in the Training of Trainers workshop to serve as Resource Persons for this and future training programmes in the area of counter-trafficking and irregular migration.

“An additional 25 judges have also participated in a training workshop which strengthened their knowledge and expertise to prosecute, convict, and sentence traffickers.

“A second group of 25 law enforcement officers and prosecutors, involving officials from the Attorney-General's Department, Police Service, Immigration Service, Ghana Navy and Customs Excise and Preventive Service are currently taking part in three-level training programme.

“Some of the 25 officials who were trained initially in the Training of Trainers' workshop serve as resource persons. All Participants are provided with relevant counter trafficking manuals and other materials as a package for guidance and future reference.

“In a similar annual meeting, 45 law enforcement officials, judiciary, prosecutors, NGOs, government officials, members of the Human Trafficking Board and civil society members attended to assess the impact of the training workshops.”

She despite these efforts a lot more needed to be done to deal with the situation of human trafficking.

In a speech read for her, the Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, Mrs Juliana Azuma Mensah, was worried that Ghana had been blacklisted by the US States Department of Labour in their Trafficking in Persons Draft Report because Gold, Cocoa and Tilapia industries in the country use the worst forms of child labour for production.

She also recounted the legal frameworks that had been put in place to deal with the situation of human trafficking in the country, saying a concerted effort was needed to minimize the menace.

Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana