Report Suspected Cases Of Human Trafficking To The Security --- Ministry Of Gender, Children And Social Protection Urges Ghanaians

World Day Against Human Trafficking is today, 30 ^th July, 2015. As the World marks this day, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection calls on all Ghanaians to come to terms with the danger that this practice poses to society.

According to UN estimates, at any given time, an estimated 2.5 million people are trapped in modern-day slavery. Men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers both in their own countries and abroad. Every country in the world is affected by human trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. With the over 30 billion dollars human trafficking economy globally, perpetrators are doing all in their power to maintain their grip on the trade.

Ghana is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. The trafficking of Ghanaians, particularly children, within the country is more prevalent than the transnational trafficking of foreign migrants. Ghanaian boys and girls are subjected to forced labour within the country in fishing, domestic service, street hawking, begging, portering, artisanal gold mining, quarrying, herding, and agriculture.

Government has been working hard to curb this menace. A number of legislations have been enacted to ensure that victims of trafficking are protected while perpetrators are punished for the offence of human trafficking and other related criminal conducts. Some of these are the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694); the Labour Act, Children’s Act 1998, (Act 560); the Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (Act 732) and the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).

The Human Trafficking Regulation has been laid in Parliament and the Human Trafficking Management Board inaugurated.

Institutional mechanisms to combat this crime against humanity are important. It is for this reason that Ghana has taken steps to ensure that the requisite institutions are established to coordinate and prosecute anti-human trafficking agenda. Among these institutions are the Anti- human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit, Migration Information Bureau / Human Trafficking Bureau / desk within the Ghana Immigration Service.

These measures are yielding some results. In 2014, the Human Trafficking Secretariat under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection identified146 victims, at least 82 of whom were Ghanaians returning from trafficking situations in Gulf countries. This is a decrease from 182 victims reported in 2013.

To further strengthen Ghana’s drive in the fight against human trafficking, the Government of Ghana and the Government of the United States signed the first Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership worth $5 million in Accra, Ghana. The CPC Partnership is a jointly-developed, multi-year plan aimed at bolstering current efforts of the Government of Ghana and Ghanaian civil society to address child sex trafficking and forced child labor within Ghana.

Trafficking in persons is cruel, exploitative and one of the most heinous crimes that can be perpetrated by any person or group of persons against fellow human beings, and must be eradicated in our society. Trafficking steals the human right, dignity and pride of the individual and therefore we must all be part of protecting each other by being vigilant.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection urges all Ghanaians to be on the lookout to report any suspected cases of human trafficking to the security agencies.

ABRAHAM ASARE

COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR

FOR ANY FOLLOW UP PLEASE CALL:

1. VICTORIA NATSU: EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, HUMAN TRAFFICKING SECRETARIAT 0244813888
2. EDMUND FOLEY, TECHNICAL ADVISOR ON CHILDREN ON: 026885656/0542510207