Challenging Heights rescues 22 from human trafficking
Challenging Heights, over the weekend, rescued 22 children from various forms of forced labour, including child trafficking in some fishing communities.
The operation, carried out in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and some security agencies, saw 11 boys and 11 girls, aged 7 to 13, rescued.
Last year, Challenging Heights, which is a child-centred organisation, in collaboration with its partners, rescued 201 victims of human trafficking, made up of 90 boys and 111 girls.
Out of the numbers rescued, 81 of them were Nigerian victims who were trafficked into various forms of forced prostitution and cybercrime, while 120 of them were rescued from the fishing industry, particularly on the Lake Volta.
It warned of a worrying trend of a massive number of victims trafficked from Nigeria into Ghana for various forms of exploitation, saying the majority of these victims are forced into prostitution and cybercriminal ventures, and called for urgent action to address the situation.
Total rescue
The current rescue brings the total number of persons Challenging Heights has rescued to 2,888 over the last 20 years since its establishment.
The organisation has, in addition, supported several thousand women and youth through various livelihood improvement programmes across 14 regions in the country.
Also, rescued children are given a rehabilitation programme at the Challenging Heights rehabilitation centre.
The organisation, which is a leading Ghana-based antislavery organisation, has been working to address trafficking in persons since 2005, and has over the years become the leading voice in bringing freedom to victims, and engaging in both community and national level advocacy for the protection of persons vulnerable to trafficking, especially children.
Led by its Executive Director, James Kofi Annan, the organisation thanked the Ghana Police Service, the Department of Social Welfare, the Navy, the Ghana Immigration Service, and the various district assemblies for their hard work amid very challenging operational circumstances.
It said these government agencies, which are mandated by law to address the issues of human trafficking in Ghana, are critically under-resourced and therefore reiterated its call for the government to allocate a minimum of GH₵20million to these agencies to enable them to fight human trafficking across the country.
