Catholic Women hold talks on human trafficking

The Accra Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women drawn from the Madina and Tema-Battor Dearies on Saturday, organised a talk on Human Trafficking at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Adenta, in the Greater Accra Region.

The President of the Archdiocesan, Mrs Margaret Yeboah, said human trafficking and modern slavery present danger to women and children.

She urged the various women in the society to come together to end the practice.

Mr Kwamina Addo Mensah, a resource person from the Department of Human Development of the National Catholic Secretariat Accra, said the body is collaborating with the Ghana Police Service and the Gender Ministry to fight human trafficking.

Mr Mensah noted that most often the victims are lured with good prospects when they travel and therefore appealed to the public to be aware of the modus operandi.

He said the victims end up undertaking jobs such as domestic servants and prostitution.

Mr Mensah observed that about 40,000 children have been engaged in human trafficking and modern slavery in the past.

He said the root cause of the human trafficking is due to poverty and sometimes the outcome of wars.

He said the Secretariat goes round and pick the children victims and shelter them and also facilitate the punishment of parents who are culpable with the help of the Police at the courts.

Chief Superintendent of Police Patience Quaye of the Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery Unit of the Police, said almost every day about 100 young women leave the country to Kuwait, Qatar looking for greener pastures.

She said human trafficking is illegal and therefore the perpetrators use different means of luring their victims.

Chief Superintendent Quaye said poverty, unemployment, war and the usage of the internet are some of the causes of human trafficking.

She warned parents to refrain from releasing their children for domestic work in places they do not know, since their young girls would be sent into prostitution.

She also noted that the victims are often maltreated and hardly escape from their masters.

Chief Superintendent Quaye said 27 million people are trafficked globally and it is regarded as the second largest criminal industry in the world.

She human trafficking reaps more than 12 billion Dollars annually.

Chief Superintendent Quaye said the education on human trafficking is to empower women to know what is happening.

She said any person found culpable would be imprisoned for five years for contravening the Human Trafficking Act 694 of 2005.

Mrs Abena Amobea Asare, Assistant Director from the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection said the Ministry is working in collaboration with the Police to withdraw all children under human trafficking and help resettle them.

She said only children above the age of 15 are entitled to work.

She said some professionals like soldiers, police and nurses are lured by connection men into various foreign countries.

These persons are often given free air-tickets, free passport acquisition among others and immediately these person land in the foreign land it becomes difficult for them to return and most often undergo excruciating pains forever until they are extricated from their bondage.

She reminded parents that if they do not send their children to school it becomes an offence liable for prosecution.

She urged the Catholic Women to take care of their children and live up to expectation.