By Ewoenam Kpodo
Denu (VR), April 23, GNA – The Anti-Human Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons (AHSTIP) Unit of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Aflao Sector Command and its partners have pledged to work together to fight human trafficking in border communities.
Human trafficking which involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people including children, women and men through force, fraud or deception, with the purpose of exploiting them for profit, has become rampant through some routes in the Volta Region.
The commitment was made during a school outreach programme at Three-Town Senior High School (SHS) at Denu embarked on by the Handmaids of the Divine Redeemers Sisters Foundation (HDRSF), an indigenous Catholic women religious congregation in the country and the International Centre for Safe Migration (ICSM) in partnership with the AHSTIP Unit.
The outreach formed part of the “Amewuga” advocacy campaign against human trafficking in border communities, aimed at raising awareness on human trafficking and protection of migrants’ rights, mobilising community action, building resilience of women, girls and children against modern-day slavery, abuse and exploitation, improve support systems for victims and ultimately reduce trafficking incidents in border communities.
Sister Regina Ignatia Aflah, the Assistant Superior General of HDRSF, said her Foundation was committed to promoting education, protection and building the resilience of women and girls, to enable them to achieve their potentials.
She pledged the foundation’s commitment to working together with ICSM and the AHSTIP Unit to raise awareness, rescue and care for trafficked victims and protect girls from exploitation and abuse in the border communities.
The Deputy Superintendent of Immigration (DSI) Justice Kudzo Normeshie, who is the Officer in charge of the AHSTIP Unit, GIS Aflao, expressed the Unit’s readiness to promote a gender responsive migration management, to ensure the elimination of gender-based migrant vulnerabilities to protect women, girls, children and the youth from modern-day slavery, sexual and labour exploitation and all forms of abuses.
Assistant Commissioner of Immigration (ACI) William Bannerman-Williams Hans, the Deputy Sector Commander, Aflao GIS, on behalf of the Service, thanked the sponsors for their commitment towards helping the Service to deliver on its mandate, especially in the area of capacity building and awareness creation on human trafficking, assuring of the Sector’s readiness for future partnerships.
The programme, which was attended by about 2,300 students, teachers and management members of Three-Town SHS, had the school’s drama group dramatising the elements of human trafficking, while highlighting cyber trafficking as a new trend to sensitise the attendees.
Some of the students who spoke to Ghana News Agency were grateful for the education and promised to share the lessons learnt with others to ensure vigilance, which was necessary in preventing these human rights violation.
The project “Amewuga,” premised on an Ewe cultural value that teaches that human life is worthier than money, resonates with the target audience who are commercial motor riders, drivers and border residents to relate well with the campaign message as it is rooted in their traditional values.
It is in line with the policy mainstreaming of migration risks at the Aflao Sector Command.
GNA
MA/ CAA