Ghana takes measures to resolve issue of human trafficking

Daily Graphic pg 55. Thurs. Feb. 25/10

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

THE country is said to be making gradual progress in resolving the issue of human trafficking after the passage of the Human Trafficking Act (Act 694) five years ago.
However, issues such as lack of shelter, inadequate logistics, ineffective monitoring and evaluation systems, ineffective communication mechanisms for dissemination of information and ineffective collaboration has been identified as some of the major challenges facing the successful elimination of human trafficking in the country.
This was made known in Accra on yesterday at the second annual meeting with law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, ministries departments and agencies, civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations to assess the country’s progress in combating human trafficking.
The meeting, which was on the theme, “Assessment of human trafficking and irregular migration in Ghana: The General overview and way forward” was organised by the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) and supported by the Royal Danish Embassy project.
The passage of the Human Trafficking Act has since seen the establishment of an Anti-Human Trafficking Secretariat within the Ghana Police Service and through support from UNICEF three new anti-trafficking units in the Central, Western and Ashanti regions have also been established.
A National Plan of Action has also been put in place with anti-trafficking units being established within the Ghana Immigration Service and the Attorney General’s Department.
Also, MOWAC, in collaboration with Rescue Foundation, is in the process of establishing a national database on human trafficking to provide a comprehensive research on the phenomenon and to serve as a source of information on human trafficking for planning and implementation of projects.
The issue of eliminating human trafficking in the country became necessary after the US States Department of Labour reported and blacklisted Ghana in their Trafficking in Persons Draft Report, claiming that gold, cocoa and tilapia use worst forms of child labour for production.
Aside the Act, other legislative interventions such as the Domestic Violence Act 2007 (Act 732), the Children’s Act 560 and the Criminal Amendment Code have all been put in place to combat the menace.
The Chief of Mission, International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Ghana, Ms Dyane Epstein, said it was a best practice when governments developed the political will to address a difficult problem such as human trafficking and irregular migration.
She said fighting trafficking contributed to a broader fight against poverty, exploitation of migrants, HIV and AIDS, and gender discrimination.
“Fighting trafficking thus contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and building a better future for humanity,” she said.
The Danish Embassy project, she said, had so far sponsored the training of some judges, law enforcement officers and prosecutors on human trafficking.
A Principal State Attorney at the Attorney General’s Department, Mrs Ivonne Atakora Obuobisa, in a remark said trafficking in human was a complex issue which affected both the poor and better informed people, who were lured under the pretext of gaining lucrative employment’s oversees.
She said due to the monetary gains in the business, perpetrators had become ruthless and therefore there was the need for a more sophisticated means of combating the issue.
The Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Juliana Azumah Mensah, in a keynote address said the country had good legal framework for combating trafficking, and had also ratified relevant international conventions dealing with human trafficking and human right protection.
She said with the many socio-economic issues confronting the country, the issue of trafficking must be a priority, saying that “we need to accept the magnitude of the problem. Trafficking exists and we should not close our eyes to it”.
A representative of the Danish Embassy, Ms Vibeke Mortensen, in an address called on people to distinguish between culture, abuse and trafficking, saying that the three were related leading to the complex nature of human trafficking.
A representative of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Mr Francesco D’ouidio, said the organisation was concerned about the exploitative part of trafficking where children were made to perform hazardous task while women were also forced into prostitution and forced marriages.
Miss Ghana 2009, Miss Mime Areme, who is an ambassador on child trafficking, called for parents to be educated on the dangers of child trafficking in the country.