By Jerry Azanduna, GNA
Techiman (Bono East) Aug. 5, GNA – Madam Mabel Lariba Awuni, a Justice System Associate at the International Justice Mission (IJM), a Non-governmental organisation has called for stakeholder support in fighting child trafficking, exploitation and labour in the country.
She called for public and government support towards resourcing the relevant institutions like the Police, the Department of Social Welfare adequately in identifying and fighting the menace.
She added that the Police and the social welfare required vehicles and other logistics to work proactively to address the menace.
Madam Awuni made the call when speaking at a five-day training workshop on child trafficking and labour at Techiman in the Bono Reast Region.
The IJM is organizing the training to empower personnel of the Department of Social Welfare in the region in the fight against the menace.
Madam Awuni noted that child trafficking and exploitation remained a worst form of human rights abuse, inimical to the holistic growth and development of children.
She said that children were assets from God saying that it was the responsibility of society to shape and mould them responsibly to become future assets.
Madam Awuni noted that adequately resourcing the relevant public institutions would well position those institutions to track the movements of traffickers and syndicates, urging the need for the nation to provide shelters and feeding for rescued victims.
“The law is explicit on child trafficking and exploitation,” she stated, and called on law enforcement agencies to prosecute perpetrators and to serve as a deterrent to like-minded others.
Madam Awuni advised families who used their children for exploitative labour to also desist from that offensive practice.
“Child trafficking can be cross-border,” she stated, worrying that most often victims of cross border trafficking were used for commercial sex work and exploitation that undermined their human dignity and thereby ruin their future.
Madam Awuni called for effective collaboration between traditional authorities, opinion leaders, civil society organisations and community members in tackling child trafficking and child labour in the country.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Linda Asante Agyei