Ghana – IOM in Ghana recently (21-03) provided the Ghana Police Service (GPS) with six vehicles and equipment to combat child trafficking.

The vehicles and operational equipment, which included four computers, three printers and a camera will be used by the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Ghana Police to conduct investigations and rescue operations in the Volta, Central and Greater Accra Regions.

Ghana is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. The exploitation of Ghanaians within the country, particularly children in the fishing sector, is more prevalent than the transnational trafficking of foreign nationals.

In 2016, for the second year in a row, the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report classified Ghana as a Tier 2 Watch List country – which means that the government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons.

Part of the efforts to improve Ghana’s ranking and overall ability to address human trafficking depends on increased investigations, prosecutions, and convictions. As such, the six vehicles and operational equipment provided to the AHTU will reinforce existing resources and capacity to curb child trafficking.

Minister of the Interior Ambrose Dery emphasized the government’s commitment to allocating resources to combat trafficking, saying, “The President has issued clear directives to ensure that adequate funds are released to all stakeholder Ministries, Departments and Agencies to address the critical issue of human trafficking, as outlined in the recommendation of the 2015 TIP report. We are therefore working tirelessly and committed to improve Ghana’s ranking.”

IOM Ghana Chief of Mission, Sylvia Lopez-Ekra said, “We have so far trained nearly 500 government officials from various Government agencies and agreed on Standard Operating Procedures. This equipment is a critical complementary piece that will allow the officers to get to work and increase the number of rescue operations, arrests, and investigations.”

The vehicles and equipment have been provided under the project, Assisting the Government of Ghana to Combat Child Trafficking funded by the US Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP). The project began in October 2015 and is part of five-year Child Protection Compact partnership between the Governments of Ghana and the United States.

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For further information, please contact Alex Billings at IOM Ghana, Tel: +233 302 742 930, Email: abillings@iom.int