The rescue mission was undertaken by a collaborative effort between a child right organisation and the Police Service.
Recommended articles
READ ALSO: In Volta Region:
Challenging Heights joined forces with the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Navy, the Department of Social Welfare, and its international partners, Abolish Slavery Now, to storm the Volta Lake to rescue children who were being trafficked.
A total of 14 minors – two girls and 12 boys between the ages of 8 and 16 – were found to have been trafficked and were being forced into labour on the lake.
ADVERTISEMENT
Some of the communities where the children were rescued include Alhaji Akura, Kafaba Number 3 and Efutu.
All the children would go through rehabilitation, and subsequently be re-united with their families, in communities in the Central region.
This development has come as a big shock to many Ghanaians who never envisaged such an act going on on the Volta Lake.
Challenging Heights has been spearheading the fight against child trafficking, as well as calling for policies and national advocacy in the interest of minors in the country.
READ ALSO: Scandal:
ADVERTISEMENT
The organization has also often collaborated with the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) to engage in rescue missions when children are being forced into labour.
In 2017, 91 children made up of 74 boys and 17 girls, who were being forced into labour on the Lake Volta were rescued by the organization.
Since its establishment in 2003, Challenging Heights has so far rescued over 1,600 children from the Lake Volta.
President of the organization, James Kofi Annan, called on government to “invest at least GHC15million annually, to resource the Human Trafficking Secretariat, and the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, in order for them to have the capacity to do their work, as well as enforcing the Human Trafficking Law 2005”.
