Accra, July 19, GNA – The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) in partnership with Expertise France, has organised a four-day advanced capacity building programme on human trafficking and irregular migration for law enforcement officers.
The training is to equip participants who had already benefitted from the basic training to better handle complex cases and have a deeper understanding of issues of trafficking to halt the practice.
The offices were from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Customs Excise and Preventive Service of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), MoGCSP, and the Attorney General’s Department.
Dr Afisa Zakariah, Chief Director of the MoGCSP, said human trafficking was an organised crime, which was recognised as a global challenge affecting millions of people, including women and children and hampering their fundamental rights and freedoms.
The modus operandi of the perpetrators of human trafficking was through the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, and deceit of victims for a financial gain and exploitation.
She said exploitation took the form of debt bondage, organ harvesting, prostitution or sexual exploitation, forced labour, and psychological abuse of the victims.
Institutional mechanisms and staff capacity to combat human trafficking were, therefore, important.
Dr Zakariah noted that in 2021, 831 victims were rescued out of which 87 cases were reported and investigated by law enforcement officials.
Moreover, 32 cases were prosecuted involving 37 individuals, and 13 convictions were gained from human trafficking, nine from child labour and 10 for other related offences.
The Chief Director said 14 individuals were charged and convicted for child labour exploitation whiles 13 individual defendants were charged with human trafficking offences, thereby gaining between five and seven years in prison.
Commissioner of Police Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, Executive Director, EOCO, stated that the perpetrators behind the crimes took advantage of vulnerable or desperate people who sought a better life by promising them lucrative jobs and conditions, which would meet their aspirations.
Her office, she said, was investigating among other human trafficking cases, some medical doctors, nurses, Department of Social Welfare workers and others who were involved in alleged child stealing and child trafficking.
She said the perpetrators would soon be arraigned before court for prosecution to serve as a deterrent to others.
Mr Serge Akpalou, Project Manager, Expertise France, said the use of technology had become a necessary tool as both an enabler and an enforcer.
He, therefore, called on all participants and the public to work together through information sharing to reduce the incidence of human trafficking.
“I will like to use this opportunity to renew our commitment to support the Government of Ghana in fighting human trafficking in all its shape and forms,” he added.
Mr Kwame Asuah Takyi, Comptroller General of the Ghana Immigration Service, in a speech read on his behalf, said trafficking being a transnational organised crime required the adoption of a collaborative strategy and partnership, especially in information sharing for a successful fight.
Human trafficking, the second largest criminal industry worldwide, affects the most vulnerable and undermines rule of law, fosters gender inequality and threatens global security.
GNA