Children For Sale!!

This may seem far-fetched but it is very true. Children are being sold out daily to fishermen in the Volta region to be engaged in fishing activities on the Volta Lake. This venture although very dangerous is surprisingly enriching the pockets of some adult perpetrators.

This was revealed when some fishermen including the 2014 Volta Regional best Fisherman Mr. Louis Acolatse and Navy Commander Christian Budu spoke to this paper during a community dialogue the General Agricultural Workers' Union (GAWU) held with the fisher-folk of Torkor and other surrounding communities in the Volta region.

According to Mr. Acolatse who recently rescued and enrolled into school a victim of the illicit trade told New Crusading GUIDE “this is very common in the island communities and close to Torkor here and even communities and towns along Lake Volta”.

He revealed that parents and guardians sell out their children to fishermen (the highest bidder) or sometimes these children are released to the fishermen on contract and after the expiration of it, “the contract is sometimes renewed or the child is sold to the second or third party”.

This paper spoke to a victim of the trade; an almost 18 year-old Abalo Bless who cannot remember who or where his parents are but only remembers he was sold out by his own mother to a fisherman at Pira, a town in the Afram Plains when he was just 15 years old.

According to Master Abalo, his first buyer after two years disposed him to another buyer who lived on an island close to Torkor.

Now a primary three pupil of the Torkor EP Primary School, Abalo Bless recounted the ordeals he had to endure at the hands of his buyers and as a result, sustained various degrees of injuries.

In spite of the hard work he was forced to do, he was denied education all these 18 years of his life and was glad however that although he might be the oldest pupil in his class, he has escaped trafficking and now living a normal life just as any boy his age.

Speaking to the Navy Commander at Christian Budu on this issue, this paper learnt that Abalo Bless was not alone. “Some lives are lost daily on the lake”. According to the navy man who also doubles as the Volta Lake Senior Lifeguard, children who had been trafficked were being used for very dangerous assignments very high above their abilities. “Some of these children some as young as seven and eight years old were being used as divers who disentangle nets for their benefactors.

He remembered how Abalo Bless presented himself to the Navy office in Torkor after he (Abalo) managed to escape from his buyer, and his office in turn reporting to the police and later handing the boy over to Mr. Louis Acolatse, the now regional best fisherman and his family to be living with them.

Asked why such cases are not prosecuted, the Senior Lifeguard alleged that “sometimes, the perpetrators after being reported to the police, pay bribes to be released. Other times, the police tell use there isn't enough evidence to help them prosecute the alleged traffickers.”

He was however optimistic that the GAWU-Irish Aid Collaboration which will take of early next year will corroborate the extensive effort GAWU had put into the Anti- Child Labour Project and also go a long way to educate parents and fishermen from engaging in child trafficking.

GAWU INTENSIFIES FIGHT AGAINST CHILD LABOUR
In spite of the enormity of work, campaigns and crusades going on with regards to child rights abuses, child trafficking on the Volta Lake remains a very pressing challenge which the people of the Volta region particularly Torkor and its surrounding communities are being forced to battle with.

A lot of children of school- going age in the region have against their will, abandoned the idea of education. Rather, they have gone under the employ of fishermen who do nothing but to exploit the innocence of their age and use them to undertake very tedious and dangerous tasks.

While some of these clueless children engage in actual fishing, others are made to dive under water to disentangle nets and lay traps; an occupation which proves to be a life threatening one.

Owing to this ever -increasing concern of child labour and trafficking, the General Agricultural Workers' Union (GAWU) has teamed up with Irish Aid to put a more permanent halt to this unpopular engagement of children as fishermen and divers.

The project which is at its inceptive consultation stage appreciates that child labour and trafficking are indeed very extensive in almost all the fishing communities in the country but will dedicate much of its efforts to Torkor in the Volta Region which seems to be a very guilty culprit with regards to the issue.

“By working with the local trade union which include fisherman some of who use children for fishing activities, the problem will be well dealt with”, says Mr. Kwame Mensah the consultant on the project.

He said fishermen will be provided with what they need; train divers and teach them how to practice safe fishing in order to ensure that no child is forced to be a fisherman.

Additionally, fishermen will be trained on safe fishing practices for an increase and sustainability in production.

Dialoguing with members of the community, the Volta Lake senior life guard Christian Budu bemoaned the engagement of children in fishing and suggested that the perpetrators of the abuse be severely punished or jailed if possible.

Navy Commander Christian Budu expressed dismay about how cases of this nature were brought to the attention of his office, the police showed no interest in prosecuting these cases although in most situations, there was a lot of evidence to rely on.

Moving on, Commander Budu also identified inadequate security on the river as a loose end on the child trafficking chain. He said as a result of this shortfall, “children are made to suffer on the lake”. The Navy man mentioned the issue of the size of the already faulty boat made available to them, unavailability of fuel, lack of diving suits and a host of other challenges as thwarting the main purpose of his office's set up.

The Zonal fisheries Officer Mr. Wendell Papafio said plans were underway to form a unit which will include all stakeholders: the ministry in charge of fisheries, fishermen and the navy. The proposed Fisheries Enforcement Unit as it will be called according to Mr. Papafio “will supersede all activities of fishermen. “It will be established in all communities along the Volta Lake, will enforce laws and not spare anybody”.