Ghana Records Increase In Human Trafficking
According to the Human Trafficking Secretariat of the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, there were 831 victims of human trafficking in Ghana in 2021 as opposed to 587 the year before.
According to the Ministry, there were 108 investigations in 2021 as opposed to 87 in 2020, and there were also more prosecutions, from 13 in 2020 to 22 last year.
The sector deputy minister, Madam Lariba Zuleira Abudu, declared that the government was determined to putting a stop to the problem while addressing the opening session of a training program for building capacity in Fumesua, in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti region.
Human trafficking, she said, was a global canker, therefore, stakeholders ought to work together to identify and deal with the issue head-on.
The three-day programme has been put together by the Ministry in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and Expertise France, an international agency, to deepen the knowledge of security agencies on human trafficking and irregular migration.
It would discuss topics on human rights issues, victim identification, rescue operations, victim protection and investigations, amongst others.
Madam Abudu, who is also the Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social protection, said the training had been designed to equip the law enforcement agencies to effectively implement the Human Trafficking Act 2005 (Act 694).
She indicated that a National Plan of Action had been launched to deal decisively with human trafficking issues in all their forms.
The Plan, according to her, had been structured in a way to whip up public understanding of the complexity of human trafficking and irregular migration.