IOM trains journalists to combat human trafficking in Ghana’s sports sector

Young Ghanaian athletes are being lured abroad with promises of professional contracts and better lives only to find exploitation waiting at the other end. A media workshop in Accra is mobilising journalists to fight back.

Football has long been called "the beautiful game" – a sport that transcends borders, ignites dreams, and offers young people from modest backgrounds a legitimate path to a better life. But that same power to inspire has made it a prime vehicle for one of the world's most insidious crimes.

In Ghana, a disturbing pattern has emerged: talented young athletes, their families, and their communities are being systematically targeted by traffickers who exploit the universal dream of sporting glory. They come armed with the language of opportunity trials abroad, professional contracts, and world-class facilities, and they leave behind shattered lives.

It is a threat the International Organization for Migration (IOM), working in close collaboration with Ghana's Ministry of Sports and Recreation, has decided can no longer go unchallenged.

A gender-sensitive baseline assessment on trafficking in sports, conducted jointly by the IOM and the Ministry of Sports and Recreation, laid bare the scale of vulnerability.

It revealed that 95.56% of respondents expressed interest in pursuing sports careers abroad. Financial incentives and access to improved facilities were the primary motivators cited. Aspirations traffickers have learnt to weaponise with ruthless precision. More starkly, over 30% of respondents reported being lured by offers that led directly to exploitative situations.

In response, the International Organization for Migration, in collaboration with the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Sports and Recreation, convened a media workshop to address the growing threat of human trafficking within the country’s sports sector on April 15, 2026, at the IOM Head Office, 9 Volta Street, Airport Residential Area, Accra.

The objective was clear: equip the media with the knowledge, sensitivity, and responsibility needed to confront a crime that thrives in the shadows of silence and misinformation.

Sessions covered the full spectrum of the challenge from an overview of trafficking trends and the legal frameworks that define them to practical guidance on protecting victims during interviews, leveraging new media platforms responsibly, and understanding the crucial distinction between the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.

The United Nations Trafficking Protocol defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons through threats, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploitation. Speakers stressed that this definition extends far beyond international borders.

Abena Annobea Asare, Director of the Human Trafficking Secretariat at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, addressed the workshop with urgency that reflected the gravity of the issue. She was unequivocal: this is not a distant or abstract threat.

"These traffickers often present attractive opportunities, but victims end up being exploited in various forms, including forced labour and sexual exploitation."

Madam Asare further emphasised that trafficking is not only a cross-border phenomenon. It occurs within Ghana’s own communities, making collective vigilance, not just government enforcement, an essential line of defence.

She pointed to a toxic combination of misinformation, misplaced trust, and the hunger for opportunity, particularly among the youth, as the conditions traffickers exploit.

Her warning to journalists was pointed: the media, often the first to reach vulnerable communities, must not inadvertently become a conduit for the very criminals they report on.

"Journalists must be careful not to become channels through which traffickers reach unsuspecting victims."

offered insight into how the crime unfolds on the ground.

What he described was a methodical and predatory operation designed to exploit the vulnerabilities of young footballers.

Traffickers, he explained, are acutely aware of the weight a professional contract carries in communities where opportunities are scarce. They construct elaborate illusions, fake trials, forged documentation, and promises of European clubs, knowing that desperate families will invest everything they have in the hope of a child’s breakthrough.

"Human trafficking is a crime that strips people of their rights, ruins their dreams, and robs them of their dignity. Help stop this crime."

Mr Ayaregah urged journalists to exercise caution regarding the types of sports opportunities they publicise, noting that traffickers are increasingly using social media advertisements and online platforms to expand their reach.

Perhaps the most delicate dimension of the workshop was its focus on how journalists report on victims themselves. ACP William Ayariga, also present at the training, challenged media practitioners to examine not only what they report but also how.

"Avoid approaches that potentially stereotype or sensationalise people, situations or places. Reporting of human trafficking requires the highest level of professionalism and clarity of mission. Refrain from intentionally or unintentionally further stigmatising and traumatising the trafficked person."

This standard demands far more than factual accuracy. It requires journalists to balance two responsibilities: exposing the crime fully while protecting those already harmed by it.

Unauthorised agents, the workshop heard, have increasingly become central figures in trafficking networks exploiting their perceived legitimacy to broker deals that deliver young athletes not to stadiums, but into exploitation. The line between legitimate football intermediaries and traffickers is often deliberately blurred.

That opacity is precisely why the role of the media is so critical. In a landscape where traffickers rely on confusion, ignorance, and desperation for opportunity, a well-informed press becomes one of the most powerful tools in the fight against them.

For journalists, the responsibility is both professional and moral. They must verify information before publishing, carefully scrutinising sports opportunity adverts, agent credentials, and recruitment claims.

They must also report victims’ stories with dignity, avoiding sensationalism and focusing on accurate, responsible storytelling that does not cause further harm.

In addition, journalists should build reliable sources within law enforcement, civil society, and survivor networks to ensure accurate and well-informed reporting on trafficking cases.

Ultimately, every unverified report, false platforming of fraudulent agents, or misreported trafficking case can cause real harm. The media has a duty to protect the vulnerable, and in the fight against human trafficking in sport, that responsibility is critical.