Ghana Recorded More Than 248 Labour And Sex Trafficking Cases In 2016

A US Department of State report suggests Ghana is failing to successfully combat sex and labour trafficking of its citizens.

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2017, launched in Washington on June 27, placed Ghana in the ‘Tier 2 Watch List’, for countries where the number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant and whose government do no fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act passed by the US congress in 2000.

This is the third consecutive year that Ghana has ranked in the ‘Tier 2 Watch List’, narrowly avoiding a downgrade to ‘Tier 3’ this year due to a waiver granted in recognition of the government’s devotion to implement a national plan.

The Trafficking in Persons Report measures government efforts at prosecuting traffickers, protecting victims and preventing the crime.

The report is launched annually to highlight the successes achieved and the remaining challenges on human trafficking.

The report also focuses on the responsibility of governments to crimininalise human trafficking and hold offenders accountable.

According to the report, Ghana is making significant efforts to fight trafficking by providing protection services to more child trafficking victims, raising awareness and developing agreements with other governments to prevent cross-border sex and labour trafficking of Ghanaian citizens.

It said that government is also working with NGOs to develop and begin implementation of victim identification and referral procedures, as well as a national action plan.

Despite these efforts, according to the report, the government has not demonstrated increasing effort to combat trafficking.

It said that government failed to report comprehensive statistics on its anti-trafficking law enforcement effort during the reporting period of January 1- December 31, 2016.

The government also does not have accurate figures on the number of trafficking victims it identified or assisted.

The report noted that only 7 traffickers were convicted out of more than 248 cases investigated by anti-human trafficking unit (AHTU) of the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service in 2016.

It said many of these cases were either stalled or dismissed due to lack of evidence.

In addition, government did not convict any traffickers under anti-trafficking law, but instead offenders were convicted under less stringent statutes that resulted in lesser punishment.

On the protection of victims of trafficking, the human trafficking fund, established by the 2005 Human Trafficking Act to finance protection efforts, according to the report, has not received funds for 5 consecutive years.

The report also said government has made no efforts to decrease the demand for forced labour or for commercial sex acts.

Ghana ranked alongside 18 other African countries including Nigeria and Burkina Faso, in Tier 2 Watch List, the highest from any continent.

No African country made Tier 1, for countries whose government are fully committed to fight human trafficking.