Volta Region is the hub of child trafficking in Ghana - US Ambassador

The Volta Region is the hub of child trafficking in the country due to the number of children illegally sent on a daily basis to work at the lake, the US Ambassador to Ghana Robert P. Jackson has said.

According to him, his 3 days visit to the Volta Region made him realise the ordeal trafficked children go through just to make ends meet. He described their stories as powerful and heart-wrenching when listened to.

“The Volta Region in Ghana is the nexus of trafficking in this country, so many children are trafficked to the lake. We met with some of the children and parents and relatives and people working to combat trafficking during our visit there and their stories are powerful and heart-wrenching”, he said.

In April, about 30 children who were trafficked into forced labour on the Volta Lake in the Volta Region were rescued by the Police. The children, whose ages range between 6 and 17, were sent to the Social Welfare Department to receive counselling, medical screening and rehabilitation.

According to the Ambassador, these 30 children who were rescued in the operation were physically abused contrary to what the media reported. He stressed that most of the rescued children had evidence of broken bones and bruises on their body.

Ambassador Robert P. Jackson speaking to some magistrate judges at the West Africa Regional Training Center in Accra on Wednesday, June 21 on the theme “Adjudicating child trafficking cases in Ghana” said it is estimated that about 100,000 children are being trafficked in Ghana.

According to Ambassador Jackson, if Ghana fails to address this issue, it stands risks of losing assistance from USAID.

The 2016 Trafficking in Person Report ranked Ghana in Tier 2 Watch List country for the second year in a row, meaning the Government of Ghana did not meet the minimum required standards for preventing the trafficking in persons and has failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to do so.

He further urged judges present at the training to listen carefully to victims of trafficking when they appear in court and use every means possible to administer justice by convicting them of the crime they committed.

Ambassador Jackson said doing this will save people from being abused.