Forum held on dangers of child trafficking

pg 17 Feb. 02/08


Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho, Old Ningo

TRAFFICKING of children to the city has existed over the years and parents of some of these children did not even know where the children were being taken to.
In some cases the parents were given monies which served as though the children had been bought and these children were taken to either farmlands or fishing communities to work. Some of them were as young as five years and could not even trace their homes, nor could they even give the full names of their parents.
These children were most often deprived of education, basic social amenities such as proper clothing (they were normally in scanty clothes) and shelters and access to good health care and all these factors hampered their overall growth.
The issue of child trafficking still exists but in a more dynamic form as most traffickers use the children for various intentions such as for the purposes of child prostitution, servitude, slavery or for rituals.
Those who are used in slavery in the fishing or farming communities are made to perform hazardous task such as diving into the sea or river to de-tangle ropes, an activity which most often results in the death of the children.
However, in 2005, Ghana passed a law against human trafficking (Human Trafficking Act, 2005 Act 694). The law, among other things, makes it an offence to recruit children who are not up to 18 years for hard work and those above 13 years for light work.
The law criminalises the exploitation, transportation and recruitment of children from their place of origin to different places for the purposes of going there to work or serve.
It is against this backdrop that the Department of Children under the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) has been organising sensitisation programmes for communities where the issue of child trafficking is more prevalent in the country.
Although an action plan on the law is yet to be unveiled for its successful implementation to serve as a deterrent to traffickers, the department continues to organise these sensitisation programmes to educate the general populace on the dangers of trafficking people.
One such programme was the organisation of a puppet show for schoolchildren in Old Ningo in the Dangbe West District of the Greater Accra Region.
The show was aimed at educating the children on the dangers of working under hazardous conditions and what they could do when they found themselves in such situations.
The Project Officer from the Department of Children, Mr Clarke Noyoru, who explained the offences relating to human trafficking, said the law generally looked at three main issues: which were the act or conduct of the trafficker, means of trafficking and the purpose or intention for which the trafficking was done.
With regard to the act, Mr Noyoru said it was normally done through the harbouring, transferring, facilitating or receiving the trafficked children from their parents or guardians to where they were made to work.
He explained the means as how the act was exhibited — whether through force, threat or cohesion — and said most often traffickers abducted some of the children from their places of abode.
The third act that the law looked at was the purpose for which the child had been trafficked and this involved whether the child was being used for exploitative purposes to enrich the pockets of the trafficker or whether the child was made to perform a hazardous task or introduced to prostitution or used for ritual purposes.
He said a case could formally be made against a person where one could prove all of the three instances, adding that when found guilty, one was to serve a non-negotiable custodial sentence of 5 years and the assets of the trafficker also sold and placed into a human trafficking fund.
He warned that when caught, people who were also aware of trafficking situations but did not report to the police or any law enforcement agency also had to pay a minimum of 250 penalty units.
He said currently the government was focussing on the rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration of trafficked children, adding that such children when rescued were taken through counselling, while members in communities where they were re-integrated were also given some orientation to accept them in order to make life more comfortable for the children.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Department of Children, Mr Peter Akyea, said the Ningo area was noted for child trafficking especially to Akosombo and other countries such as Gambia.
He said it was heart-warming that most of the kids who were sent to go through the ordeal of performing hazardous work had returned and were currently reunited with their parents.
The Presiding Member of the Dangbe West District Assembly, Madam Sarah Addo, told the Daily Graphic that the assembly was currently educating parents in the area to desist from the act of giving their children away.
She said the assembly had also made arrangements to ensure that returnees were counselled so that they were traumatised by their ordeal.