Child Trafficking: We can’t afford to slip to Tier 3 ratings – Ambrose Dery

Minister-designate for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, has said he will act speedily to push a response to the US government concerning efforts to curb the disturbing phenomenon of human trafficking.

“For the past two years Ghana has been rated as tier two. And if Ghana is rated as tier two, a third year running it would be downgraded to tier three resulting in consequences that will make this country lose financially at least 650 million dollars,” the nominee said during his vetting Saturday, January 21, 2017.

According to him, he’s already on the move holding stakeholder meetings to consummate the national efforts that will stimulate action in addressing the canker.

Ghana has been found not to be doing as much as the country should to curb the disturbing phenomena of human and Child trafficking.

This could lead to a downgrade and a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in US development aid assistance.

The 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report which includes narratives for 188 countries and territories, including the United States, classifies Ghana as a Tier 2 Watch List country, meaning that the government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons and failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in the past year.

According to the US authorities, any country ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years must be downgraded to Tier 3 in the third year unless it shows sufficient progress to warrant a Tier 2 or Tier 1 ranking.

Ghana has been on Tier 2 for two consecutive years and risk a downgrade to tier three if steps are not taken to tackle the problem.