Child trafficking menace increases in Ghana

Mr Gabril Acoatsey, the Senior Manager of the International Justice Mission (IJM) has called on the public to unite in fighting human trafficking which had been on the rise in the country.

He said the increasing rate of child trafficking hazard was so alarming saying research had shown that some parents were selling their children as low as 50 cedis while others exchanged their children with cows to work under suffering conditions forever which at the end affect their education and health.

Mr Acoatsey made the call at the opening of a three-day training workshop organised by IJM in Techiman for forty participants drawn from the Bono East Region.

IJM is an international, non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) which focuses on human rights, law and law enforcement.

The aim of the workshop was to equip participants to be able to support survivors of any form of abuse and to strengthen the Justice system in Ghana.

It was attended by workers from the social welfare department in the Region to become more prepared in identifying cases of trafficking and abuse at their offices and dealing with it in a more comfortable and competent manner.

Among the topics the participants were taken through were child protection, laws on trafficking, alternative care, effective Data collection management and report writing.

Mr Acoatsey said IJM works together with local organisations like the Ghana Police service, State Attorney Department and the social welfare in combating human trafficking on the Volta Lake and across the country borders.

Mr Acoatsey, IJM is a global organisation that protects people, particularly the poor, from violence and worked with the local authorities to rescue people who are vulnerable to violence and abuse in the country.

He noted that abused victims were already traumatised and need to be handled in a special way, adding that many institutions do not handle abused victims professionally and end up worsening their situation.

Mr Acoatsey hoped the training would fortify participants to care and be more responsible about people in such situations.

Madam Mabel Lariba Awuni, the Attorney for the Tamale office of the IJM was troubled about the personal influences of prosecution by the political leaders, some traditional and other key people in the society who were even supposed to support by joining the fight to curtail the menace but instead distracting trial.

She emphasised that nobody was against the fact that children engaged in light work to attain informal education, but the fact that some work affected the children’s education, health, emotional, psychological and physical development.

Madam Awuini said that children become more hardened when they go through hardened conditions in life and therefore become recalcitrant in society.

Children must not be exploited under any circumstances since such activities teared them apart and must be classified as a very heinous crime which needed to be fought by society with no time, she said.

Madam Awuni called on the media to join the cause of fighting against the menace since it was killing the vision, talents and future of many children who were the country’s future leaders.

Source: GNA