Human trafficking persists despite coronavirus - Gender Ministry

The Human Trafficking Secretariat of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, has revealed that incidents of human trafficking persist despite the Coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Abena Anobea Asare, Assistant Director of the Human Trafficking Secretariat of the Ministry said despite gains Ghana has made to reduce the incidents of human trafficking, there is a need to intensify the fight against the practice.

“Even though we are in the time of COVID-19, criminals don’t rest, so we too we won’t rest in the fight against trafficking.

“There have been pockets of [human trafficking]. Ghana as a country we are doing our best to combat it but every day we hear pockets of issues relating to it,” she said on the sidelines of a capacity-building workshop.

The workshop held on Wednesday, July, 14 at the Coconut Groove Regency Hotel was organised by Ministry of the Gender, Children and Social Protection to ensure that security officers working in the field of trafficking are well-equipped to fight the menace.

Human trafficking is a crime that exploits women, children and men for numerous purposes including forced labour and sex.

Since 2003 the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has collected information on about 225,000 victims of trafficking detected worldwide.

Major international organisations monitoring the incidence of Human Trafficking in Ghana say the country has not fully met the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.

Ghana has moved from the Tier 2 Watch List to the Tier 2 ranking, a move the Ministry of Gender says signifies the country’s commitment to fighting the menace.