Trafficked children reunite with their families

Sokpoe (V/R), May 16, GNA - Thirty-six trafficked children who were rescued early this year by International Organization for Migration (IOM) were on Thursday reunited with their parents.

The children, 9 girls and 27 boys aged between 6 and 16 years, were trafficked from some fishing communities in the southern part of the country to Kete Krachi fishing communities in the northern part of the Volta Region.

The reunification ceremony coincided with the International Day of the Family, which falls on May 15 of every year, a day proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly.

The ceremony that took place at Sokpoe near Sogakofe in the South Tongu District was organized by IOM in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC).

Mr Eric Peasah, Field Manager Counter Trafficking Project, IOM Ghana, said child trafficking was a social problem which needed to be tackled by all to ensure that it was brought to the barest minimal. "Child trafficking is a social problem which we cannot get rid of entirely, but we aim at reducing the problem to the barest minimum in order to save the children from slavery", he said.

He said some of the children who were rescued in the previous years were sent back by their parents to serve as child fishermen. Mr Peasah said the traffickers preferred children as young as four years old to older ones because they were innocent and do not rebel against their masters.

He said the children would be enrolled in schools in their communities by the Ghana Education Service and Social Welfare Department takes care of their needs while they live with their parents. He said the Ghana Health Service would provide medical treatment at least twice every year for both the current and the previous children who were rescued and appealed to all benevolent individuals, corporate entities and organizations to support the children.

Madam Sharon Abbey, Assistant Director, Shelter for Trafficked Children, Department of Social Welfare, said due to social pressures and the struggle by families for survival, some children had fallen victims of exploitation culminating into social problems such as child abuse of which trafficking is a apart.

She said single parenting, poverty and lack of parental responsibilities were some of the reasons why some children were trafficked. Madam Abbey said the children were sent out from their parents with the consent of their parents in exchange of as little 20 Ghana cedis from their traffickers.

She said all the rescued children showed some form of abuse they had gone through including an 8-year-old boy who fell on a boat and broke his spine during fishing and another who lost one of his eyes due to an accident he had during fishing. Madam Abbey said the children had gone through untold hardships and suffering at the hands of their masters and so the Shelter for Trafficked Children used the three-and-half-month they stayed at the shelter to provide them with basic needs, psychosocial counselling, creative art therapy as well as school and classroom work. "This exposure was to enable them overcome the trauma that they have been through, learn to forgive, and be exposed to regulated lifestyle" she said.

Mr Davide Terzi, Chief of Missions, IOM, said the significance of reuniting the children with their families on International Day of the Family was because his outfit believed the family constituted the basic unit of society.

He said it was to give the child the opportunity to grow and develop within the family setting because that was the only way a child was most likely to enjoy his or her rights. He said so far, IOM had rescued, rehabilitated, returned and reintegrated 612 trafficked children who were working under hazardous conditions in fishing communities along the Volta Lake since it started its counter-trafficking activities in 2002. Mr Terzi said IOM field officers together with implementing partners in the Central and Volta regions visited the homes and schools of rescued children to assess their educational and social needs and the reintegrated children continue to receive reintegration assistance from the organization.

"It is our hope that community surveillance teams would be put in place to prevent these children being re-trafficked or given out again to be exposed to the worst forms of child labour", he said. Miss Catlyn Hunter, Representative of the US Embassy, said it was important for parents to know their responsibilities in order to help give their children the future they deserved.

She said trafficked children were exposed to hazardous activities including fishing that denied them of their rights as humans. She said the US was determined to stop child trafficking because it was a crime against human dignity and the right of the child and had earmarked 30 million dollars for IOM to assist its operations. Deputy Superintendent of Police Patience Quaye, Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, Police Headquarters, said human trafficking and sexual exploitation for women and children had increased and had become a major part of organized crime. The children presented a gift to the US Embassy representative, displayed some crafts they had made at the shelter, sung and performed drama to the admiration of the audience. 16 May 08