Ada: Support human trafficking fight — Opinion Leader to residents

Mr. Charles Nateh Abayateye, an Opinion Leader at Anyamam near Sege has said the leaders of the various authorities in the Ada area have a major role to play in ending human trafficking by using their various offices effectively, efficiently, and strategically.

Mr Abayateye stated that the responsibility of leaders remained indispensable in the fight against the menace, and charged identifiable leaders in the communities to intensify public education on the effects of the menace as well as its implications on victims as they are usually beaten and maltreated in diverse ways.

The Ada Opinion Leader stated during a community forum to reunite four children who were trafficked to Yeji, in the Pru East District of the Bono East Region located adjacent to Lake Volta and Morekorpe, and Bejemesu in the Oti region with their families as monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Ada.

The children were rescued through the intervention of the Ghana Police Service, and the Department of Social Welfare in collaboration with the International Justice Mission.

Answering Questions on Ada as a crucial source area where children are normally trafficked and sent unto the Volta Lake to engage in fishing activities, Mr. Amos Mantey, a fisherman at Agblabanya, a predominantly fishing community also near Sege said there was an urgent need for stakeholders at the community level to sensitize residents on human trafficking and its negative consequences.

Some of the residents also used the opportunity to call on the traditional, community, and religious leaders to help through education among other effective ways toward ending human trafficking.

The residents urged their leaders to lead a fight through community engagement, outrages, church activities, and public education among others.

According to the residents the situation could not be curbed individually or by a single organization and called for collaboration and wider consultation towards its eradication.

The four children under the age of ten years when they were separated from their families and trafficked into forced fishing labour on Lake Volta, Ghana’s largest man-made lake.

As part of their duties, they had to dive into the deep lake to untangle fishing nets, and worked long hours at night and early in the morning, which affected their health.

They noted that some of them were currently experiencing ear defects due to numerous drownings and ulcers as a result of starvation and hunger.