Participants in a photograph after the opening of the meeting
Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Francisca Oteng Mensah, has called on ECOWAS Member States to prioritise the safety and survival of rescued trafficked victims.
According to her, there is a challenge within the sub-region with regards to the courses of action taken to ensure survivors of human trafficking are protected and reintegrated into society.
“A challenge in Ghana and I believe across the region are shelters to accommodate the victims of human trafficking and other related crimes. What do we do with these victims after they are rescued from the perpetrators?” she quizzed.
Madam Oteng Mensah made the call while addressing participants at the 15th annual review meeting of the ECOWAS Regional Network of National Focal Institutions Against Trafficking In Persons Plus (RNNI-TIP+) in Accra, yesterday.
She was thus optimistic that the meeting to deliberate on the development of a new Regional Plan of Action and validate the draft regional referral mechanism on trafficking in persons will identify clear referral mechanisms and pathways for handling cross border victims of trafficking.
ECOWAS Commission Head of Human Trafficking Tip Unit, under the Humanitarian or Social Affairs Division of Human Security, Olatunde Olayeni, said about 5000 victims of human trafficking are rescued within the region yearly, indicating that within all member states, including Ghana, the trafficking is domestically that is within the country and more people traffic in children than in adults.
“But we do have a significant amount of trafficking in adult women for sexual exploitation, as well. For children, it will be anything from domestic servitude to trafficking to work in Western cultures,” he said.
He indicated that the Commission has been coordinating the action plan of Member States through regional meetings and has also provided support to some States where necessary to enhance the implementation of their action plans.
“It also strengthens the ability of member states to coordinate their actions, including operational actions essential in dealing with victim identification, withdrawal from the hazardous situation and return back to their countries of origin, cross border prosecution or mutual legal assistance situations and extradition,” he added.
International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) Head of Office, Amala Obiokoye-Nwalor, in a statement said the partnership between the EU and West Africa has contributed immensely to sustaining the fight against Trafficking in Persons (TIP).
She, however, indicated that the cross-border dimension of TIP means that fighting the menace cannot be a one-country effort, but a bilateral and multi-lateral collaboration and cooperation.
“We must continue to ask ourselves… have we placed the welfare of TIP Victims at the centre of our policies, strategies, programmes and interventions?” in line with this year’s theme, ‘Reach every victim of trafficking, leave no one behind’. We cannot rest on our oars…we have come a long way since the Palermo protocol was ratified in the year 2000, but we still have a long ways to go in effectively combating this menace,” she added.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri