The participants at the workshop.
Seven Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) have stressed the need to create awareness about international trafficking and exploitation of Ghanaians.
The stakeholders made the call at a workshop on protecting migrant workers at home and abroad to commemorate the International Migrants Day 2016, marked on December 15.
According to them, Ghanaian migrants, particularly women and young girls, are increasingly recruited through licensed and unlicensed recruitment agencies for domestic work in various countries, with the majority of them returning to Ghana after few months as a result of exploitation and abuse.
Data from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) indicate that over 2,000 Ghanaian women left for the Middle East between September 2014 and January 2015. Since then, about 350 women have returned to the country due to exploitation and abuse.
Two young women, who had travelled to the Gulf region to work as domestic workers and returned to Ghana after suffering abuse, shared their experience with the audience at the workshop.
“I was not allowed to sit unless I was eating and they did not pay my salary as promised,” said one of the migrants.
Ghana, which acknowledges the contributions of migrants worldwide and the plight of vulnerable Ghanaian migrants, particularly those trafficked for domestic work, signed bilateral agreement on labour issues with the Government of Jordan.
The country has also created an association of employment agencies under the supervision of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to reintegrate those stranded in countries of destination by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The stakeholders later pledged to ensure the protection of our citizens.
They also promised to develop a Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and share protocols to assist the victims.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri