GHANA EDITORIAL

Let's take a collective stance against child trafficking

The 2004 Human Rights Report on Ghana released by the United States Embassy in Ghana makes a compelling case for the government to combat child labour and trafficking of women and children.
According to the report, the country was a source and a destination country for trafficked persons in 2004. WAJU reported that there were 190 cases of abduction and 19 cases of child stealing during the year.
For example, children were often trafficked into the custody of someone referred to as a "cousin" or an "aunt" even if there was no blood relation. Though they knew this was happening, police officials often claimed that the "lack of legislation criminalizing trafficking hampered their efforts. As a result the trial of a woman arrested in the Upper East Region in 2001 for trafficking eight boys and three girls to the Gambia had dragged for year's end. The case of traffickers intercepted in 2002 with 50 children was pending in the court at the year's end, as a result of clear legislation on human trafficking.

Children between the ages of 7 and 17 also were trafficked to and from the neighboring countries of Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, and Nigeria to work as farm workers, laborers, or household help.
The report notes that the most common forms of internal trafficking involved boys from the Northern Region going to work in the fishing communities along the Volta Lake or in small mines in the west, and girls from the north and east going to Accra and Kumasi to work as domestic helpers, porters, and assistants to local traders. Local NGOs reported these children were subjected to dangerous working conditions and sometimes were injured or killed as a result of the labor they performed.

Sadly, much of the recruitment of children was done with the consent of the parents, who sometimes were given advance payment or promised regular stipends from the recruiter and were told the children would receive food, shelter, and often some sort of training or education. Some parents sent their children to work for extended family members in urban areas. Many children were given to professional recruiters, usually women, who placed the children with employers in cities, where they usually abused physical and sexually.Ghana is a signatory to the UN convention on the rights of children. But since signing this law the implementation has been the problem. With the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs now firmly established, it is expected that authorities at the ministry with the support of the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies will tackle the problem of child trafficking head on.
Public Agenda is unhappy that Ghana continues to be at the center of negative reports on child abuse, when the country is enjoying so much peace and stability. It is time punitive laws were made to punish parents who use children as young as six years as labourers, when these children ought to be in school. We suggest that parents of children of school going age found on the streets should be picked up and prosecuted.

14 March 2005

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