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Ghana told to work harder to end modern-day slavery or risk losing U.S. aid
From forced labour in the fishing industry to hawking, Ghanaian boys and girls are exploited within their own country, and "government inaction" could cost the country international funds.
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The 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report found Ghana a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.
From forced labour in the fishing industry to hawking, Ghanaian boys and girls are exploited within their own country.
The report also found Ghanaian girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are subjected to sex trafficking in Ghana, which is prevalent in the Volta region and is growing in the oil-producing Western Region.
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It found Ghanaian women and children are recruited and sent to the Middle East, West Africa, and Europe for forced laboor and sex trafficking.
Ghanaian men were also recruited under false pretenses to go to the Middle East where they were subjected to domestic servitude and forced prostitution.
Women and girls voluntarily migrating from Vietnam, China, and neighbouring West African countries are subjected to sex trafficking in Ghana, the report said.
The report found for the second year in a row, Ghana classified as a Tier 2 Watch List country, meaning that the government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons and failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in the past year.
Any country ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years must be downgraded to Tier 3 in the third year unless it shows sufficient progress to warrant a Tier 2 or Tier 1 ranking. A Tier 3 ranking indicates a government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons and is not making significant efforts to do so.
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Ghana could be subject to an automatic downgrade to Tier 3 in the 2017 TIP Report, and if this happens, it will become subject to restrictions on U.S. assistance, including development aid and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.
The United States currently provides more than $140 million per year in development aid to Ghana, while the MCC Compact is worth more than $498 million.
Other U.S. programmes, including assistance in the areas of law enforcement; capacity building for state prosecutors; security and military assistance; and increasing the capacity of the Electoral Commission, would all be subject to restrictions.
However, the report did recognise that the Ghanaian government investigated and prosecuted some trafficking and trafficking-related crimes, including allegedly fraudulent labour recruiters and suspected child traffickers; conducted public awareness activities aimed at informing the public about the risks of human trafficking; and provided funding to support two meetings of the Human Trafficking Management Board.
Responding to the report, NGO Challenging Heights communications manager Pomaa Arthur said the findings proved how bad the issue was in Ghana, due to “government inaction”.
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“It's really bad for the country and shows us how the government does really not care to fight human trafficking.”
The communications manager of the anti-trafficking NGO said the report “reveals how much our government is unconcerned about the issues of trafficking and forced labour. Through government’s inactions, all efforts by other non-governmental organisations and agencies to bring an end to trafficking in Ghana appears to be nothing but a drop in the ocean.”
She believed the issue did not seem to be on the country’s priority list as almost all government agencies mandated to fight trafficking are under-resourced or understaffed.
“We want to know what government uses donor monies for; we want to know why law-enforcement agencies are not able carry out their duties properly and we want to know why government doesn’t care about its own people who are being bought and sold as though they have no value,” she asked.
“Ghana is gradually becoming the hub of traffickers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our legal structures are not working and traffickers have taken advantage of that opportunity to turn Ghana into an operation centre for their illegal activities. They know the police will not arrest them and even if they are, they will not be convicted,” she said.
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Arthur said irrespective of what Challenging Heights or any other NGO does, government still remains the most effective primary tool for stopping trafficking in the country and ensuring that the country makes significant efforts to bring an end to the situation.
She called on the government to take swift action to resource the Human Trafficking Management Board through the Human Trafficking Fund and to appropriately tool the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service to ensure the effective delivery of their mandate under the law.
Chief Superintendent Patience Quaye, the Head of the Anti – Human Trafficking unit of the Ghana Police service told Pulse Ghana she hoped the findings would be a wake-up call.
The information in the report was correctly reported as her unit had passed on.
She runs a unit of 20 personnel in Accra, while the regions of Ghana have units working with the CID police.
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“It is a challenge to us with this report but it will also be awakening for all of us in anti-human trafficking, the government, the law enforcement, the judiciary, everybody will wake up. When we go to tier three we all know the challenges we are going to face. I don't think any of us want to go to that.
"We need to put all our efforts in to ensure we do our best in order to make sure we move up,” she told Pulse Ghana.
“I think to me, they are fair in their grading,” she added.
Chief Superintendent Quaye said there were many challenges that needed to be overcome to see an improvement, and said the police and government were working to make changes.
She said there were many cases of human-trafficking pending before court.
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One of the challenges was a lack of appropriate accommodation for witnesses in cases, especially young adults. If a witness comes from a different region and the case is adjourned, they may not have the funds to travel back and forth to Accra.
Being able to accommodate all victims in a shelter in Accra would help police bring a case to completion in court, she said.
Currently, there are a number of cases before the court, she said, including a case involving trafficked children working on the Volta Lake, and in Accra cases pending from girls who were allegedly trafficked in Gulf countries.
The Ghana police were also working on prevention, she said.
“We managed to stop over 360 girls which were coming to do the police clearance [to get a visa] I think that one too they [the US report] didn't look at it...anybody who comes we interview, so any we think is a threat to security we warn them not to go because at the end of the day they will end up being trafficked,” she said.
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Chief Superintendent Quaye said Ghana was working to move up a level in the report, and is working to train law enforcement and the judiciary in anti-human trafficking.
She believed the government and parliament was supporting efforts to decrease human trafficking.
“Last year Parliament issued a statement that our unit will be supported, it was raised on the floor of Parliament that they have to support and equip us to be able to do our work well. So at least even that recognition within Parliament it is something.”
She said MPs would also follow the police unit to see the work they do, and the Ministry for Gender, Children and Social Protection was able to mark some of the communities prone to human trafficking.
“Government has really done something, maybe people will say it is not enough but at least they are supporting us, we believe that as time goes on they will put funding into the account of the human trafficking fund and that will be a moral boost to all of us.”
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As to the improvements needed, the key factors in Ghana’s Tier 2 Watch List ranking include no demonstrable increase in prosecution efforts or assistance to victims; zero trafficking convictions in 2015; a decrease in the number of victims identified in the past year; inadequate funding and training for law enforcement and prosecutors; inadequate funding for victim protection and support services; insufficiently stringent penalties for trafficking; and reports of increased of corruption and bribery in the judicial system, which hindered anti-trafficking measures.
The report recommended increased funding and support for police and immigration service efforts to investigate, and police and attorney general prosecutors to prosecute trafficking offenses — especially internal labor and sex trafficking of children — and convict and punish trafficking offenders. It also called for better collecting and reporting data on investigations, prosecutions, victims identified, and assistance provided, as well as systematic procedures for law enforcement, social welfare personnel, and labor inspectors to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations — such as women in prostitution, migrant workers, and children working in agriculture, mining, fishing, and portering — and refer them to protective services.
The report called for Ghana to finalise and implement the National Plan of Action Against Trafficking.
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