Olaolu Olusina
15 January 2008
(Page 2 of 2)
It is however interesting that with all these developments, the US Department of State's 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report still classifies Ghana as a Tier two country; a country with an improvement on her anti-trafficking efforts. According to the report, "trafficking within the country is more prevalent than transnational trafficking, with majority of victims being children (boys and girls) engaging in forced labour in the fishing industry, agriculture and mines."
Observers are, however, not convinced that Ghana is doing enough. Prior to the IOM's intervention, the country had no law to prosecute traffickers. And in spite of her leading role in the sub-region, the country is yet to ratify the 2000 UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol. Though the country made an effort with its 2005 Human Trafficking Act that prescribes a minimum penalty of five years' imprisonment for all forms of trafficking, there is no maximum penalty for the offence. It is however gratifying to note that Ghana obtained its first conviction in February 2005 as a trafficker got a six-year jail term under the 2005 law. The 17-member Human Trafficking Board is also awaiting presidential approval.
And just as the countdown to the African Cup of Nations football competition, tagged Ghana 2008, begins, the Ghanaian government has been called upon to put adequate measures in place to prevent human traffickers from having their way .This followed the disclosure by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and some organisations that some people have perfected plans to recruit children for prostitution during the games.
The secret association of commercial sex workers in Accra and Takoradi had earlier expressed concern, though for selfish reasons, about media reports of invasion of prostitutes from neighbouring Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire in the run up to the African Cup of Nations tournament.
Bright Appiah, an activist with the Children Right International, an NGO also said he had information from Kumasi that some "underground agents" have been paid to recruit sex workers, with children as some of their targets. Speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and sponsored by the British High Commission at Senchi near Akosombo in the country's Eastern region recently, Appiah said as the security agencies beefed up their watchdog role in host cities and surrounding towns of Ghana 2008, tournament, children could also be protected if government imposed a curfew on children during the tournament. While this may appear a sincere suggestion, observers are not in any way in support of this as it will definitely be an infringement of the rights of the child to free movement.
International sporting events, no doubt, have become fertile ground for human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children. The case of Ghana 2008 cannot, therefore, be an exception, say observers of the development. Adu Poku, director general of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service confirmed this as well. "The international sporting events have become a fertile ground for human trafficking for sexual exploitation, the documented patterns of frequent trafficking of children for forced prostitution during World Cups and others as well as the increase of recruitment of children for prostitution in South Africa for the upcoming World Cup create a dire picture. We need to fight it to ensure zero tolerance for human trafficking," said the Ghana CID boss.
Tatiana Kotlyarenko, executive director of Enslavement Prevention Alliance West Africa, however, put the challenge at hand in proper perspective. "In South Africa, there are media reports of how street children as young as nine years old are being lured and prepared for prostitution for World Cup 2010," she said, even as she warned: "With no preventive measures in place and relatively easy border crossings for other ECOWAS members prior to, and during, the CAN 2008, it is highly probable that thousands of women and children will be trafficked into Ghana for the purposes of exploitation, as well as recruited internally."
The ECOWAS Commission estimates that not less than 300,000 children have fallen victim to trafficking in the sub-region, citing an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report .The sub-regional body already has a protocol among member states that makes trafficking an offence. Member states are currently being encouraged to embark on reform of national laws with a view to harmonising them with international and regional conventions and protocol on trafficking in Persons.
Organisations around the world are also expressing sincere and serious concerns about the problem of human trafficking into the Southern African region in the run up to the World Cup 2010.The need to adequately prepare for the upcoming World Cup was one of the topics on the agenda at a conference held by the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) in Bangkok, Thailand last November.
The situation in Nigeria is not in any way better, though the country is also classified as a Tier 2 country by the 2007 TIP Report of the US State's Department. Nigeria, according to the report, remains a major source country for women trafficked to Europe and a transit and destination country for trafficked children to and from other parts of Africa.
Collateral Damages, a new report by the GAATW, which examines anti-trafficking measures and their impact on human rights of trafficked people in eight countries across the globe, however describes Nigeria's 2005 anti-trafficking act as a step in the right direction. It nonetheless notes that the act has many loopholes and shortfalls, which it says may be "the result of acting too quickly." Victoria Nwogu, author of the Nigerian chapter in the report said "the act essentially reproduces the UN Trafficking Protocol, without effectively adapting it to the local context. Some of the points of the Protocol are inappropriate for Nigeria and so the Act, in some places, misses its mark."
It would be recalled that following the endorsement of the UN Protocol on Trafficking In Persons, Nigeria went ahead to promulgate the 2003 Trafficking In Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) was created in August 2003, with Carol Ndaguba as the executive secretary. The 2005 amendment to the Child Rights Act also increases penalties for traffickers and their collaborators.
Though sentences imposed have been inadequate, NAPTIP has continued to make commendable efforts as the country reported 81 trafficking investigations, 23 prosecutions and three convictions in 2006.The national action plan against trafficking developed in 2006 is also awaiting presidential approval.
The UN Protocol to Prevent ,Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children came into force in 2003.It defines human trafficking as, "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation."
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