[ 2017-02-22 ]

David Asante-Apeatu, Inspector General of Police

Police rescue over 360 girls from trafficking
MORE than 360 young girls were rescued from being
trafficked into the gulf countries in 2016, the
Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (ATHU) of the Ghana
Police Service (GPS) has disclosed.

It said a total of 22 boys, who were trafficked to
South Africa and forced into hard labour, were
also rescued.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), David
Asante Apeatu, who disclosed this in a speech read
on his behalf at the launch of Friends of the
Nation’s (FoN) Anti-Child Labour and Trafficking
(CLaT) sensitisation programme said all the
victims had been reintegrated with their
families.

The speech read by the out-going Regional Police
Commander, ACOP Kwame Tachie Poku, added that
about 135 cases of CLaT were also investigated by
the AHTU between January and June 2015.

He said the Police, through the Criminal
Investigations Department (CID), was using
intelligence-led enforcement as its key to detect
and prevent human trafficking and child labour in
the country.

The IGP said human trafficking and child labour
were serious organised crimes which required
concerted efforts from all stakeholders including
transport unions, ministries, agencies and
departments and Non-Governmental Organisations
(NGOs).

He said the Police administration would continue
to actively partner both the public and private
sectors in offering large-scale capacity building
for its personnel to improve their knowledge and
skills in dealing with human trafficking and child
labour offences.

He urged the public to provide prompt and timely
information to the Police on the activities of
Child traffickers to enable the Police to swiftly
clamp down on them.

The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture
Development (MOFAD), Mrs Elizabeth Afoley Quaye,
said government, through the ministry, was in the
process of finalising a child labour and
trafficking strategy for the fisheries sector
under the Sustainable Fisheries Management
Programme (SFMP).

She was optimistic that the implementation
together with the development of the National Plan
of Action against child labour and trafficking
issues in Ghana would contribute immensely to
address several forms of child labour and
trafficking in fishing communities.

Mrs Quaye underscored the need for all relevant
stakeholders, institutions, Civil Society
Organisations and the media to work together to
address child labour and trafficking issues in
Ghana.

Mr Donkris Mevuta, Executive Director of FoN,
bemoaned the extent to which CLaT had bedevilled
the nation’s development efforts saying,
potential quality human resources was being
wasted.

He noted that children of school going age who
were supposed to be in school to build a better
future were working under hazardous conditions,
thereby endangering their own lives and
society’s future.

FoN, as a socio-environmental advocacy
organisation, abhors the use of children and, more
so, the abuse of their rights in the natural
resource extraction sectors.

Consequently, it would remain committed to
preventing such acts by addressing the underlying
factors through education that promoted
behavioural change, he assured.

Obrempong Nyanful Krampah XI, President of the
Central Regional House of Chiefs, pledged that
they would work with all relevant stakeholders to
do away with outmoded traditional beliefs that
promoted child labour and trafficking.

The FoN is an implementing partner of the SFMP
funded by the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) and implemented
by a consortium led by the Coastal Resources
Centre, Graduate School of Oceanography of the
University of Rhode Island.

Source - The Finder

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