Tema, Dec. 18, GNA – The Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG) has called on governments across Africa to take responsibility for properly integrating migrant fishers into communities in their countries.
CaFGOAG made the call in commemoration of International Migrants Day, which is celebrated worldwide annually on December 18, following the United General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution on December 18, 1990, on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
The day is used by the UN to highlight the contributions made by the roughly 272 million migrants, including more than 41 million internally displaced persons, and the challenges they face.
Nana Kweigyah, the President of CaFGOAG, told the Ghana News Agency that migration served as a prevalent livelihood strategy in small-scale fisheries.
He added that unfortunately, migrant fishers often faced discrimination and, in some instances, threats to their lives, therefore the need for their proper integration into the host society they worked in.
He urged local and national governments to take the crucial responsibility and work collaboratively with the fishers themselves to ensure the fair and effective integration of migrant fishers, including their legal status for the protection of their human rights.
He said Ghanaian fishermen were all over neighbouring countries and questioned who documented their plights for the attention of the government of Ghana.
“In a recent conversation, a Ghanaian fisherman leader in Senegal narrated their experiences of various forms of discrimination and threats, including threats to life, particularly when fishing in the waters of Guinea-Bissau,” he lamented.
He stressed that such issues raise issues of integration of migrant fishers and coordination between national governments for the safety of migrant fishers.
GNA