Community leaders, security officers to enforce Human Traffic Act

Accra, Jan. 6, GNA - The Association of People for Practical Life Education (APPLE), an anti-child trafficking NGO, has organised a workshop for 123 security officers and community leaders as part of efforts to enforce the implementation of enforcement of the Human Trafficking Act (694).

The two-day workshop, sponsored by Right and Voice Initiative, on the theme: "Empowering the Law Enforcement Agencies to Arrest and Prosecute Human/Child Traffickers" sought to engage government as well as the citizenry in the fight against trafficking.

Mr Abdulai White, a Magistrate at Adidome, said though the human trafficking law was lifted from foreign statutes, such as the United Kingdom, a great deal of effort and strategy must be crafted to enforce the law, "otherwise, Act 694 will be a mere law passed to appeal to the international community, particularly, the donor community". He also called on the Social Welfare Department to strengthen their internal mechanisms of catering for such rescued children in order not to frustrate the work of the Police and NGOs working in the area. Mr Jack James Dawson, Executive Director of APPLE, said at the moment it was collaborating with the police, traditional rulers in the target districts (Mfantseman, Yeji and Pru) to enforce the laws on human trafficking. He reiterated that trafficking was a crime liable to a minimum of five years' imprisonment and asked individuals with information on some unscrupulous persons engaged in the act to report to the security agencies. Participants were trained on the basic features of human trafficking, paying or receiving money in respect of recruitment and transfer of humans or children. They were also trained on offences in Criminal Law (Act 29) and Children's Law (Act 560) to help them build a charge sheet for arrest and prosecution.