Detective Chief Inspector Joseph Nakoja (Head, AHTU-Volta)
Ghana risks losing financial aid and donor support from the United States of America and other developed countries and international organisations over poor human trafficking record.
The Head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Volta Regional Police Command, Detective Chief Inspector, Joseph Nakoja lamented that Ghana’s efforts in the fight against Child Labour and Trafficking (CLaT) has not been encouraging.
He said despite the efforts being made, the country has not met the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, especially children and hence risk losing donor support from the United States Government and other development partners.
Chief Inspector Nakoja disclosed this in Ho recently when he addressed a group of Christian leaders in the Volta Region at a forum dubbed; Justice Conference organised by the International Justice Mission (IJM).
IJM is an international NGO that protects the poor from violence; slavery, sex trafficking, sexual violence, police brutality, property grabbing and citizen rights abuse in the developing world. It has over 750 lawyers, investigators, social workers, community activists and other professionals working in 17 field offices (countries).
An estimated 2.7 million child labourers are in Ghana with the fishing, cocoa and artisanal mining sectors being the largest employers of child labour in the country. It is therefore not surprising that, Ghana has for two consecutive years been listed on the Tier Two watch list of the United States’ (US) Department Trafficking in Person (TIP) in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Chief Inspector Nakoja said countries like Ghana in the tier two watch list were “countries whose governments do not fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards, but were making significant efforts to meet those standards and the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking was very significant or was significantly increasing, among others”.
He was therefore worried that if Ghana does not make significant effort to fight against human trafficking, the country was likely to be downgraded to Tier Three on this year’s TIP list, which could have dire implications for the country.
He called on all Ghanaians not to leave the fight to halt human trafficking to government and its agencies alone, but treat it as a national problem requiring the assistance of all.
Mr Leonard Ackon, the Church and Community Relations Manager of IJM, said his outfit and the Church are more than ready to assist the government to end child abuse and trafficking in Ghana. He was hopeful that the forum will help curb the menace and help re-integrate the abused children into society and provide counselling for them.
Rev. Seth K. Mawutor, Chairman of the Christian Council Ghana, Volta Region, said as a key partner, the knowledge gathered by the Church from the forum will be used to form district and regional teams to support the under resourced Social Welfare Department and the AHTU in combating child trafficking.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (freduoo@gmail.com)