Human Trafficking in [Ghana Street Children in [Ghana] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Ghana] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Republic of Ghana [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Ghana is a
source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked
for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
Trafficking within the country is more prevalent than transnational
trafficking and the majority of victims are children. Both boys and girls are
trafficked within Ghana for forced labor in agriculture and the fishing
industry, as porters and for street hawking. The Government of Ghana
estimated in 2005 that up to 40,000 children worked as porters, or Kayaye, on Ghana’s streets. Girls are trafficked within
the country for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. Local and
international NGO reports in the past year indicate that child prostitution
within the country is widespread and increasing. There were also reports that
some boys are trafficked internally for prostitution. Liberian refugee
children and women in Ghana are also trafficked for commercial sexual
exploitation. Media and NGO reports in the last year indicated that tourist
locations in Ghana are increasingly becoming destinations for sex tourists. Transnationally, children are trafficked to and from
other West African countries, primarily Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Nigeria, and The
Gambia, for the same purposes listed above. Women and girls are trafficked
for sexual exploitation from Ghana to Western Europe, from Nigeria through
Ghana to Western Europe, and from Burkina Faso through Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
|
|
CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** The
Protection Project - Ghana [DOC] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Children from Ghana are reportedly
trafficked to neighboring countries to work on farms or in fishing
villages, and they are trafficked
internally for similar purposes. One boy from Immuna,
a fishing village in the Central Region of Ghana, was forced to work without
pay for more than 5 years in a fishing community close to Yeji,
located on the Volta River. He was one of hundreds of children rescued from
forced labor in Yeji fishing communities in 2004 by
the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Akateng, a
fishing community in the Manya Krobo
District in the Eastern Region, has been identified as a child-trafficking
zone by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs. It is estimated that more than 1,000
children are working as slave laborers on fishing boats across the
country. The children are usually told
that they are going to live with relatives who will care for them and send
them to school; however, they end up working long hours on fishing boats.
Boys frequently get stuck in nets at the bottom of the lake. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are reports of children being given away, leased, or sold by
their parents to work in various sectors.
Children were also reportedly sold into involuntary servitude for
either labor or sexual exploitation. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – From
January to May there were 105 cases of child abduction and 131 cases of child
stealing, according to the DOVVISU. On September 4, the Immigration
Service reported its largest interception of traffickers to date when Kulungugu border officials arrested a woman for
attempting to traffic 17 children, ages 5 to 17, to Trafficking was both internal and
international, with the majority of trafficking in the country involving
children from impoverished rural backgrounds. The most common forms of
internal trafficking involved boys from the Northern Region going to work in
the fishing communities along the Children between the ages of 7 and
17 also were trafficked to and from the neighboring countries of Much of the recruitment of
children was done with the consent of the parents, who sometimes were given
an 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. Treatment of children sent to work in relatives'
homes varied. Many children were given to professional recruiters, usually
women, who placed the children with employers in cities. A child in these
circumstances usually was paid between $2.20 and $3.30 (20 thousand to 30
thousand cedis) per month. In many cases, the
children never received the education or vocational training the recruiters
promised. Girls could be forced into prostitution and were sometimes sexually
abused by their employers. Women also were trafficked to
Western Europe, mostly to Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 1997 [18] The Committee further notes
with concern the inadequacy of existing laws in protecting children who are
"adopted" - a situation which has led to abuses such as
exploitation through domestic labor, particularly of girls. Ghana Police set up anti-human trafficking Unit On the welfare of the 17 rescued
girls, ACP Yeboah said
that he had liaised-with the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs to find
a temporary shelter to accommodate them until further notice. Committee
on child labour, trafficking inaugurated A 21-member steering committee for
an International Labour Organisation
(ILO) project on combating child labour and
trafficking was inaugurated in Kumasi on Thursday. Dr. Slyvester
Sakyiamah, Executive Director of the Social
Research Associates, said the Kumasi Metropolis had
become the destination for most of the children trafficked from the Upper
West, Upper East, Northern regions and other parts the country. He said the
children were found to be cart pushers, bar-keepers, head porters, hawkers
and domestic servants among other exploitative jobs. Dr. Sakyiamah
said due to the nature of the work they engaged in, the lack of shelter and
better conditions of life, some of them become street children, who were
easily lured into robbery, drug peddling, child prostitution resulting in
socio-economic problems. Preventing
Child Trafficking in Ghana's Fishing Communities “They are not being held against
their will, but as a child they have no consent. What happens is that some of
these children have uncles or relatives who come to these poor parents in
fishing area, in the village to take them to go and stay with. When they go
there, they in turn give the children to fishermen and collect some money
from the fisherman, and the children go and work for the fisherman instead of
going to school,” Peasah said. The report said in December 2005,
one Razak Mohammed asked his wife, Joyce Kruwaa, to allow his stepson, Kwadwo
Kwafo, aged nine, to accompany him to visit his
parents at Kintampo in the Brong
Ahafo Region.
She gave her consent because that had been the usual practice whereby
every December, Mohammed went to his parents for items for the Christmas
celebration. The report said this time
around, instead of going to Kintampo, Mohammed took
the boy to Kano, Nigeria, and sold him to an Alhaji for 158,000 naira (about $1,000). Man
jailed 30 years for human trafficking The audience in the courtroom were
stunned when Abebrese, resident of Brepro Nkwanta near Bawdie in the Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western Region admitted to
attempting to sell one Joseph Narh, a carpenter of
the same village for ritual purpose. But, Inspector Adzadza
said on June 19, 2007, the complainant received a call from Tekpey who informed him (the complainant) that he lied
when he said he wanted him to assist him secure a kiosk, rather he wanted him
(the complainant) to assist him sell one Narh in
the Sewfi area where a human head could be
exchanged for a KIA vehicle. Trafficking
of African women is thriving In January Italian police smashed
several human trafficking rings involving African and eastern European females
and netted some 800 suspects. Outside Nigeria, other main
sources of females for prostitution were the west Africa states of Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Togo. She said young girls were lured with
fraudulent offers of jobs in Europe, only to end up being violently forced
into prostitution. Human
Trafficking Act is too broad - Lawyer A lawyer has described the Human
Trafficking Act, 2005, as "too broad" and as such raises a number
of concerns that need to be addressed to ensure its effective
enforcement. He said, for instance,
the meaning of trafficking in the Act has been so defined as to make it ambiguous
to determine what is meant by "force", "deception",
"harbouring" or "exploitation of
vulnerability." Qatar
recruitment is human trafficking - says Legal Centre After the arrival of the first
batch of Ghanaians to the oil-rich Qatar three months ago, several
disgruntled workers complained of conditions there, resulting in a Government
fact-finding mission to investigate the allegations. Workers claimed that housing and food was
poor, that they had not been paid and that their passports had been taken
from them by their employers. High
human trafficking profits increases practice in Ghana High profits from human
trafficking, rated the world’s third illicit business has led to increased
number of children being trafficked and transported from Ghana to neighbouring countries.
Statistics from the United Nationa’s
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicated that human trafficking was rated the
World’s third most profitable illicit business venture apart from drugs and
prostitution. Fighting
human trafficking: Ghana's youngest victims However, in this era of civilisation and development, Ghanaian children, through
no fault of their own, are still being given out or sold to people, being
deprived of their rights to enjoy life to the fullest. People give out their children to
these fishermen in return for monthly, quarterly or annual compensation. Media
urged to sensitize people on child trafficking Mrs Hagan said the estimated population
of children between 5 years and 17 years in Ghana was 6,361,110 out of which
2,474,545 representing 39 per cent were engaged in economic activities while
242,074 are engaged in hazardous child labour. Mrs Sylvia Hinson-Ekong,
Executive Director of Rescue Foundation Ghana, said sensitization would
stimulate people about the need to combat child trafficking. Media
urged to educate public on human trafficking According to her most parents
ignorantly gave their children out to persons forgetting about the dangers
that they could go through. She said the enactment of the law on human
trafficking was in the right direction but called for more collaboration
between security agencies in combating it. WEST
AFRICA: Children in danger: War on trafficking Rejoice says she was 10 years old
when she was sold and taken from her home to an unfamiliar fishing village on
the banks of Volta Lake in central Ghana. Her parents said they needed the
money and that her buyer, Victoria, would look after her. For the next seven years Rejoice
washed, scrubbed, cooked and cleaned alongside two other girls bought by
Victoria. The young girls soon learned the rule of the house – work or be
beaten. Human
Trafficking Law, Act 694 explained Mrs. Sweetie Sowah,
Western Regional Director of the Legal Aid Board, has said parents who offer
their child for trafficking commit an offence under the Human Trafficking
Law, Act 694. She was speaking at a community
puppetry sensitisation programme
on the Human Trafficking Law organised by the
Department of Children at Sekondi. Workshop
On Child Trafficking Ends In Bawku The Bawku Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Abdul-Rahman Gumah, has called for effective networking between the security services and community opinion leaders to address the high incidence of child trafficking in the Municipality and to step up surveillance on child smugglers in the area. Let's
Take a Collective Stance Against Child Trafficking 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. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 2 Status: Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress - Country Study GHANA-GAMBIA: Sex
slave children trafficked by Ghanaian fishermen According to the Gambian National
Intelligence Agency, the girls were smuggled into the country without
official papers to work as sex slaves for their Ghanaian masters. Ceesay confirmed
this. She said the girls were forced to “satisfy the sexual desires of older
men” and some were working full-time as prostitutes within the 5,000-strong
Ghanaian community. The Gambian authorities said that
the girls were also made to work long hours smoking fish and selling gari, a popular Ghanaian staple made from cassava. Some
boys smuggled into the Gambia were made to work as fishermen. Meanwhile, their masters’ own children went
to school and had all their usual domestic chores, like washing their school
uniforms and even cleaning their shoes, done for them by the trafficked
children. The trafficked children told
Gambian officials they had been forbidden to contact their parents at home. Vocational
Center for Freed Slave Girls in Ghana SUMMARY - Girls, freed from slavery, are
gaining valuable skills by attending a vocational center that was built with
help from GlobalGiving donors. Worst Forms of
Child Labor / Modern Child Slavery WHERE SLAVERY EXISTS TODAY - Industries in which child
slaves are used exist in all parts of the world. Children are enslaved in the
cotton fields of India, fishing
industry in Ghana, charcoal production in Brazil, gold mines in Peru, brick
producing kilns of Nepal, stone quarries in south Asia, as camel jockeys in
the United Arab Emirates, and as domestic servants and sex slaves all over
the world, including in the United States and other developed countries.
Because they are more easily manipulated, children are typically given work
in the most unhealthy and dangerous conditions. The
Protection Project - Ghana [DOC] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Children from Ghana are
reportedly trafficked to neighboring countries to work on farms or in fishing
villages, and they are trafficked
internally for similar purposes. One boy from Immuna,
a fishing village in the Central Region of Ghana, was forced to work without
pay for more than 5 years in a fishing community close to Yeji,
located on the Volta River. He was one of hundreds of children rescued from
forced labor in Yeji fishing communities in 2004 by
the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Akateng, a fishing
community in the Manya Krobo
District in the Eastern Region, has been identified as a child-trafficking
zone by the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs. It is estimated that more than 1,000
children are working as slave laborers on fishing boats across the
country. The children are usually told
that they are going to live with relatives who will care for them and send
them to school; however, they end up working long hours on fishing boats. Boys
frequently get stuck in nets at the bottom of the lake. Children
engaged in hazardous labour A National Child Labour Survey by the Ghana Statistical Service indicated
that out of the over six million children in Ghana of school-going age
between five years and seven years, 1.3 million of them are engaged in
hazardous labour. Ms Elizabeth Hagan, Head of Child
Labour Unit of the Ministry of Manpower Development
and Employment, said at a stakeholders meeting on child labour
in the country at Koforidua. She said the figure represented 39 per cent
of Ghana's children of school going-age, who were out of school and were in
the labour market. GHANA: Trafficked
children registered "We met on a one-to-one basis
with 96 of the 136 fishermen who are known to employ underaged
labour in Brong Ahafo region," Ernest Taylor of IOM Ghana said.
"All of them promised to free the children. We told them that in exchange
they would receive training and modern fishing equipment, so they won't have
to employ children in future."
"We will continue to register all cases of trafficked children in
the region. We will then start tracing families with the help of the traditional
leaders and the fishermen. Once the families have been identified, we will
contact them and provide enough help to ensure that the return of the
children is sustainable," Taylor added. U.S. Labor Secretary Visits with Victims of Child Trafficking in Ghana During Secretary Chao's visit, she met with nearly 50 children who have
been victims of trafficking. In addition to children from Kokrobite,
Secretary Chao also visited with students from five
schools in nearby villages. The children were trafficked hours away from
their home to the Volta Lake region to work in the fishing industry, as
divers, net casters and assistants to local fishermen. They were recently
returned home, many through a Ministry of Women and Children campaign known
as "Bring Your Child Back Home." The
Tragedy of Female Slavery in Ghana According to the American
Anti-Slavery Group, until the 18th century the offering typically took the
form of livestock or other gifts, but that began to change and priests began
demanding, and receiving, virgin girls as atonement for the sins of their relatives. Girls, often under the age of 10, are
brought to the priest, ritually stripped of all their possessions, including
clothes, and told they have to do anything the priest tells them. Most girls
are raped repeatedly. Juliana
Dogbadzi - Sex Slavery Juliana Dogbadzi, enslaved in a
shrine in her native Ghana as a young child under a custom known as Trokosi, was forced to work without pay, without food or
clothing, and to perform sexual services for the holy man. She was able to
escape seventeen years later, after several failed attempts, at the age of
twenty-three. Trokosi comes from an Ewe word
meaning "slave of the gods," and is understood as a religious and
cultural practice in which young girls, mostly virgins, are sent into
lifelong servitude to atone for the alleged crimes of their relatives. In
1997, it was estimated that approximately five thousand young girls and women
were being kept in 345 shrines in the southeastern part of Ghana. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
|
Human Trafficking in [Ghana Street Children in [Ghana] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Ghana] [other countries]