Ghanaian Immigration Foil Attempted Child Trafficking to Gambia

A thirty-nine-year old Ghanaian fishmonger identified as Madam Ekua Seguah was recently arrested by the Ghana Immigration Services for an alleged attempt to abduct 13 children to The Gambia.

According to a recent publication of Ghana's Daily Graphic newspaper, it was realised that the children, made up of eight boys and five girls, were going to be engaged in fishing activities in The Gambia.

The Daily Graphic said the children had been given promises of being sent to school and being treated nicely.

None of them, according to the report, could give their exact age or date of birth but each of them knew their wages were to be paid to their parents back in Ghana. Meanwhile, Seguah is reported to have told authorities in Ghana that five other persons who had custody of the children were arrested in the course of the journey and that the onus fell on her to take the children back to Ghana.

Musa Kobna, the alkalo of Brufut Ghana Town, a settlement occupied by Ghanaian fishermen, told the Daily Observer that the children were usually brought to The Gambia from Ghana to engage in fishing activities, not to serve as slaves.

Kobna said he was recently in Ghana, and that he had witnessed the arrival of the said children in a Ghanaian town, where they were returned to their parents.

He said most of the children who were brought to The Gambia had their parents residing in the country and that those below the age of 12 were sent to school while those aged above 15 were trained in fishing activities.

Kwasi, a 12-year old boy, who spoke to our reporter at Ghana Town said he was brought to The Gambia last year and is now engaged in fishing and had not been going to school.

He recalled that when he was in Ghana, he was going to school.

Radio 1 FM's George Christensen, Ghana's honourary consul to The Gambia, could not be reached for comment as he was said to be out of town