Ghana makes progress in human trafficking prosecution

Ghana has made significant progress in prosecuting cases of human trafficking over the past five years.

A total number of 210 individuals, out of 221 prosecuted for human trafficking and child labour related offences have also been convicted and sentenced with a fine and jail terms between 5-25 years.

This is a significant improvement from two convictions made each in 2015 and 2016.

The 221 prosecutions were out of 797 cases investigated by the Anti-Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, the Economic and Organised Crime Office and the Ghana Immigration Service since 2017.

A total number of 803 cases were reported for the same period.

Apart from prosecutions and convictions, the country has rescued, cared for and rehabilitated 240 female victims of human trafficking at the Adult Shelter since its operationalisation in 2019.

The Children Shelter has also cared for 189 since its operationalisation in August 2020 through the Human Trafficking Fund for victim care and shelter support.

A Member of the Human Trafficking Management Board, Professor Angela Ofori-Atta, made this known during an event to commemorate the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (TIP), in Accra recently.

The event was organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) and funded by the European Union (EU) and Expertise France.

The celebration of the Day also known as Blue Day was on the theme: “Ending human trafficking: A collective responsibility”.

Prof. Ofori-Atta said the ministry has in the past five years trained 798 law enforcement officials, 230 Judges, 107 social workers and printed over 12,000 educational materials to educate the public on irregular migration and human trafficking.

“The ministry and our security services with support from our partner stakeholders have rescued 3,692 victims of human trafficking since 2017. Out of this number, 2,322 were children and 1,370 were adults.”

“Majority of these victims were engaged in labour related exploitation, 2,853, while 351 were in sexual exploitation,” she added.

Legislation

In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister of MoGCSP, Lariba Zuweira Adbudu, said through a collective effort of stakeholders, the country remained on a tier two ranking of the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report by the U.S. Department of State.

To address human trafficking, she pleaded with individuals, particularly young people, to move away from irregular migration, since moving to unfamiliar destinations made them vulnerable.

She also urged non-governmental organisations working in the field of human trafficking to follow the standard operating processes laid down for them to support government agencies to achieve set targets and goals. 

The Krontihene of Adjena-Tafoman, Nana Ayimedu Brempong III, for his part, urged traditional leaders to put aside their protocols to ensure that human trafficking issues were brought to bear and addressed.

He also appealed to them not to arbitrate issues on human trafficking but rather liaise with the appropriate authorities to get the needed results.