GhanaNews

Human trafficking prevalent despite border closure

The Gender Ministry says human traffickers have devised new ways of luring victims, using force or deceit for sexual exploitation

Ghana News Agency (Accra) – Human trafficking and irregular migration activities remained widespread in the country despite the closure of borders to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) has said.

Dr Afisah Zakariah, chief director of the ministry, made this report at a two-day capacity-building workshop against irregular migration for security officers in Accra.

She said victims ended up suffering all forms of abuse and living in poor conditions, with many developing acute health problems.

The training, by the human trafficking secretariat of the ministry, was part of activities to commemorate this year’s World Anti-Human Trafficking Day. It empowered personnel from the Police Service, Economic and Organised Crime Office and Immigration Service to handle root causes and prevent human trafficking amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Dr Zakariah said because Ghana was a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, the training would enable participants who had a stronger grip on the issue to identify victims, arrest offenders and prosecute them.

She said it was a build-up course to improve on personnel’s technical understanding of victim identification, child labour, child abuse, migration and other matters.

Victim protection

Dr Zakariah said the capacity-building would also orient new recruits and officers who had replaced those transferred and promoted in various law-enforcement agencies working on human trafficking and smuggling.

She said the National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Human Trafficking mandated the ministry to support security agencies in building capacity to combat human and child trafficking.

She said that in 2018, the ministry trained 45 law-enforcement officers from various security agencies to identify victims effectively. The trainees were also schooled in victim protection and combating trafficking in persons in general.

Superintendent Mike Baah, director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, called for collaboration among the security services to clamp down on crime.

He was hopeful the training would prevent “frictions” among service personnel that traffickers could take advantage of.

Alberta Ampofo, head of the Anti-Human Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons Unit of the Ghana Immigration Service, urged the officers to be vigilant and to avoid committing crimes in the name of poverty.

Barima Akwasi Amankwah, national co-ordinator of the Ghana NGOs Coalition on the Rights of the Child, said there was a need to draw aline to distinguish the social factors behind human trafficking, where people hid behind fostering to carry out human trafficking. 

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Source
Gifty Amofa
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