Accra, June 4, GNA - The African Centre for Human Development (ACHD) on Friday said trafficked children were sold between GH¢60 and GH¢100 ac ross the country. "Trafficked children are brought to the market and sold as commoditi es especially at Agbogbloshie in Accra and other centres in the Volta, Easte rn and Northern regions," Mr Wilbert Tengey, ACHD Executive Director, said i n Accra.
He said the country continued to serve as a source, transit and destination point for child trafficking - with children trafficked within
the country as domestic servants, cocoa plantation labourers, street vendors, porters, in the fishing industry and prostitution. Mr Tengey was speaking at a day's forum for Children and Youth for students of Senior High Schools (SHS) on Human Trafficking organised by Enslavement Prevention Alliance of West Africa (EPAWA), an NGO. The forum was to create a platform for youth sensitisation and empowerment to enable them play leading role in the fight against child trafficking in their communities.
He said human trafficking could be fought more effectively if government strengthens existing laws, noting that currently, the traffick ing of children and women through Ghana for forced labour and sexual exploitation remained a major problem. Mr Tengey said "it is time government showed a firmer resolve in tackling the problem.there is no doubt that trafficking violates panoply of rights guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution".
Mr Clarke Nayoru, Head of Trafficking Secretariat, Ministry of Wome n and Children's Affairs, said "efforts in the fight against trafficking le d to the passage of the Human Trafficking Act, 2005". Mr Nayoru said the Act was enacted as a result of increased public awareness of the problem in Ghana partly as a result of local media attention on child trafficking for exploitative work. He said it was an enactment to satisfy concerns at the domestic fron t to address the problem, adding "the stimulus for the enactment of the Act
also came from the desire of Ghana to meet her international obligations under certain international instruments". Mr Darren Schemmer, the Canadian High Commissioner, appealed to students to join the crusade against child trafficking, exploitation and forced labour.
