Akosua Village Sensitised On Child Labour

Chief Superintendent (C/Supt.) Justice Bosomtwi-Ayensu Commanding Officer of the Ghana Immigration Service, Effutu has called on parents to prioritise the welfare of their children.

He said, 'Failure to secure the future of our children foretells that our own future as parents is not secured as our children'.

C/Supt. Bosomtwi-Ayensu made the call at a sensitisation durbar on the topic 'Combating Child labour and Human Trafficking exploitation in Effutu Municipality' his outfit held at Akosua Village a fishing community in Winneba.

The event was organised after a survey the service conducted along the coastal areas of the country including Winneba, Nyanyano, Cape Coast, Yeji, Kpando, Kete Krachi revealed that parents took from GH¢50.00 to GH¢300.00 from the traffickers for their children to be used for hazardous work which is also criminal.

According to C/Supt, Bosomtwi-Ayensu the International Labour Organisation (ILO) defined child labour as work that deprived children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity adding that Ghana Immigration Act 1998 (ACT 560) minimum age for employment was 15 years.

He said 13 years was for light work and hazardous work was 18 years such as night work, going to sea, mining and quarry, porterage of heavy loads, working at manufacturing industries where chemicals were produced, hotel chop and drinking bars.

He announced that people who violated the laws were liable to a fine not exceeding GH¢1000.00 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or both.

He said, Human Trafficking Act 2005 (Act 694) of Ghana also defined human trafficking as 'the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, trading or receipt of persons within, across national borders, the use of threats force or other forms of coercion, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or exploitation of vulnerability or giving or receiving payment and benefit to achieve consent were criminal and must be stopped

(ASI) Joanna S. A. Agbeti second in command of the Winneba Immigration Directorate, who schooled the gathering on the background of trafficking and child labour in Effutuman stated that 'It is worth noting that children have a role or responsibility towards their upbringing such as basic house chores, sweeping, cleaning, cooking'.

According to her, any work that was considered as harmful to the health of a child was Child Labour including; engaging a child below the age of 18 for fishing expeditions and quarrying activities, of which poverty was considered as the main drive of child labour and human trafficking in cases especially in Effutu.

'At a sensitisation programme we organised for inhabitants of Effutu Nsuekykir, an Assemblyman for the area announced that previously they alluded to this fact that 'A lot of children from the ages of 10-15 have dropped out from school to assist their parents in fishing, people including children are sometimes trafficked from the municipality to Yeji which seems to be the transiting point for traffickers.'

'Children may become wayward and drunkards, saying 'Let us be on our toes to fight against exploitation and oppression and for freedom as well as human dignity' she added.

ASI Ms. Janet Ankrah of the Service in her presentation on Criminal Act of Trafficking and the Right of a Child, announced that the traffickers recruited and transported the children to far places and exploited them by engaging them into jobs such as prostitution and even had their kidneys/ other vital parts the body removed, sold them at the black market and for rituals.

'Our forefathers fought hard to build this country, what are we doing today as our contributions towards the progress of Akosua Village, Effutuman, Ghana and Africa as a whole which had produced great men and women who have contributed immensely in the growth of the African continent'?

'Today such great people are among the younger ones whom we give them out for child labour, trafficking them just for our selfish gains and partly poverty and also denying them education, forgetting that we are destroying our own future,' she stated.

Ms. Ankrah underscored the need for parents to strive to provide and care for their children themselves with their limited funds, rather than using them in buying funeral and outdooring cloths which would not bring any development to the society as a whole.

Later C/Supt. Bosomtwi-Ayensu later presented a number of school Uniform materials, Exercise books, Pens and Pencils, second hand clothing to school going children in the community.

They also provided powdered soap and refreshed them with Soft drinks with biscuits.