[Ghana] Rescues reveal child labour and labour abuses endemic on Volta Lake

A Director at the Human Trafficking Secretariat of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, says child labour is still endemic on the Volta Lake of Ghana, Modern Ghana reports.

Madam Abena Annobea Asare said that, despite the collaborative efforts from the Child Labour Unit of the Ministry, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service and other stakeholders, 20 per cent of the labourers rescued from Volta Lake were children.

Madam Asare was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop in Accra on building a sustainable protection network to eliminate child labour as a result of human trafficking on Volta Lake.

The workshop formed part of a project implementation by the Labour Department, in collaboration with the Network for Community Planning and Development (NECPAD) and its partners.

The project is reportedly part of a 30-month intervention, dubbed The Sustainable Nets Project. Madam Asare said the fishing sector was one of the main areas of child labour and exploitation, which came in the form of children trafficked, forced into labour or bondage and those working in hazardous conditions for the purpose of exploitation.

From 2017 to 2020, there were 1,917 victims of human trafficking and labour cases recorded.

A total of 997 of these victims are children, whilst 920 were adults.

Similarly, 1,040 are victims of labour exploitation and 151 were victims of sexual abuse.

Madam Asare said 1,427 of those affected were Ghanaians with other nationals totalling 489, the number comprised 979 females and 938 males.

“Trafficking is an organised crime and must be fought by a well-organised agency,” she said.

“We must continue to work together, work as a team so that our efforts will be greater than the traffickers.

“The 1992 Constitution, The Children's Act, 1998 (Act 560), The Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) and some other policies and regulations protect the interest of children, but traffickers somehow have not relented on their illegality.”

Madam Asare said the perpetrators used deception and made lucrative offers to parents when the purpose was to be exploitative. She added that some of the signs associated with the trauma inflicted on the victims were bruises, cuts, poor living conditions, and depression.

All the rescued victims had been rehabilitated and reintegrated with their families and a number of them had been engaged in apprenticeship whilst others were in school, she said.

Chief Superintendent Michael Baah - the Head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Criminal Investigations Department - said the prosecution had led to 44 convictions between 2018 to date. In addition, hundreds of victims had been rescued as a result of 556 investigations between 2016 and 2020.

He said it was the responsibility of every citizen - particularly agencies mandated by law to protect children - to give them a better future.

In 2015 the Ghana Police Service introduced a child-friendly policing programme into its mainstream policing, with the intention of empowering officers with skills to engage with and rescue children in a comforting manner.

Mr Paul Asamoah Kukwaw - the Director for NECPAD - said the Network had a target of rescuing between 60 and 120 children with the roll-out of a sustainable livelihood scheme to put them into apprenticeship training.

He pledged his organisation's commitment to work in unison with all stakeholders to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims.

A Director at the Human Trafficking Secretariat of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, says child labour is still endemic on the Volta Lake of Ghana, Modern Ghana reports.

Madam Abena Annobea Asare said that, despite the collaborative efforts from the Child Labour Unit of the Ministry, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service and other stakeholders, 20 per cent of the labourers rescued from Volta Lake were children.

Madam Asare was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop in Accra on building a sustainable protection network to eliminate child labour as a result of human trafficking on Volta Lake.

The workshop formed part of a project implementation by the Labour Department, in collaboration with the Network for Community Planning and Development (NECPAD) and its partners.

The project is reportedly part of a 30-month intervention, dubbed The Sustainable Nets Project. Madam Asare said the fishing sector was one of the main areas of child labour and exploitation, which came in the form of children trafficked, forced into labour or bondage and those working in hazardous conditions for the purpose of exploitation.

From 2017 to 2020, there were 1,917 victims of human trafficking and labour cases recorded.

A total of 997 of these victims are children, whilst 920 were adults.

Similarly, 1,040 are victims of labour exploitation and 151 were victims of sexual abuse.

Madam Asare said 1,427 of those affected were Ghanaians with other nationals totalling 489, the number comprised 979 females and 938 males.

“Trafficking is an organised crime and must be fought by a well-organised agency,” she said.

“We must continue to work together, work as a team so that our efforts will be greater than the traffickers.

“The 1992 Constitution, The Children's Act, 1998 (Act 560), The Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694) and some other policies and regulations protect the interest of children, but traffickers somehow have not relented on their illegality.”

Madam Asare said the perpetrators used deception and made lucrative offers to parents when the purpose was to be exploitative. She added that some of the signs associated with the trauma inflicted on the victims were bruises, cuts, poor living conditions, and depression.

All the rescued victims had been rehabilitated and reintegrated with their families and a number of them had been engaged in apprenticeship whilst others were in school, she said.

Chief Superintendent Michael Baah - the Head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Criminal Investigations Department - said the prosecution had led to 44 convictions between 2018 to date. In addition, hundreds of victims had been rescued as a result of 556 investigations between 2016 and 2020.

He said it was the responsibility of every citizen - particularly agencies mandated by law to protect children - to give them a better future.

In 2015 the Ghana Police Service introduced a child-friendly policing programme into its mainstream policing, with the intention of empowering officers with skills to engage with and rescue children in a comforting manner.

Mr Paul Asamoah Kukwaw - the Director for NECPAD - said the Network had a target of rescuing between 60 and 120 children with the roll-out of a sustainable livelihood scheme to put them into apprenticeship training.

He pledged his organisation's commitment to work in unison with all stakeholders to rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims.