Six children have been rescued on the Volta Lake after being trafficked by their relatives and were subjected to child labour in the fishing community.
The victim’s names withheld were rescued by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Engage Now Africa in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare/Community Development, and the Ghana Police Service through an informant at Ada-Padiator Island in the Greater Accra Region over the weekend.
According to reports, the victims were trafficked from different communities by their family relatives to work with a Boatmaster on the lake to enable them to earn some money to support their families.
But the Boat Master who promised the victim’s family to send the children to school rather ended up fishing with them every day.
The Boat Master confuse the Police that, they go to the lake on daily basis, to remove the nets and later go back to remove the fish and prepare the nets for the next casting on the next day.
The Director of Operations of the NGO, Engage Now Africa, Afasi Komla, who led the Rescue team to embark on the operations explained that his outfit after rescuing the children, organized a durbar, and gave them back to their families.
He thereafter, also assisted them with some funds to cater for themselves for a while and took the advantage to sensitize the residents on the measures to tackle trafficking and how students in the community can collaborate with their teachers to engage with them and the state institutions to combat such practices.
At every forum, the participants were taken through what human trafficking, the effects of human trafficking, and remedies to put an end to such bad practices.
Mr. Afasi expressed that their vision is to create awareness, advocate against human trafficking and facilitate a deeper understanding of human trafficking in high-risk communities.
Lydia Ohenewaa, a Child Assessment officer of the NGO, also disclosed that children below the age of 18 years are not supposed to engage themselves in any tedious work according to the 1990 constitution Acts 560.
– BY Daniel Bampoe