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U.S. Department of State 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report - Ghana

Ghana (Tier 2)

Ghana is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked within the country as domestic servants, cocoa plantation laborers, street vendors, porters, for work in the fishing industry, and for use in sexual exploitation. IOM estimates that the number of trafficked children working in fishing villages along the Volta Lake is in the thousands. Children are also trafficked to and from Cote D'Ivoire, Togo, Nigeria, and The Gambia as domestic servants, laborers, and in the fishing industry. Children and women are trafficked for sexual exploitation from Ghana to Europe, from Nigeria through Ghana to Europe, and from Burkina Faso through Ghana to Cote D'Ivoire.

The Government of Ghana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. To strengthen its anti-trafficking efforts, Ghana should enforce its new anti-trafficking statute and increase protection and prosecution efforts.

Prosecution

The Government of Ghana demonstrated strong efforts to combat trafficking through law enforcement over the last year. In December 2005, after conducting a rigorous and transparent legislative drafting process, the government enacted a law prohibiting all forms of trafficking in persons; however, the government has yet to prosecute any traffickers under the new law. The Ghana Immigration Service extended its traveler screening technology from the international airport to stations at the borders with Togo and Cote D'Ivoire and plans to create a trafficking border monitoring unit. One hundred police participated in U.S. Government-funded police training, which included a trafficking component, and Ghana's police academy included a trafficking module in its curriculum. In cooperation with UNICEF, Ghanaian and Gambian officials met to negotiate a bilateral anti-trafficking agreement. Although IOM rescued 39 child victims from the fishing industry in 2006, the government has not taken legal action against the victims' traffickers. A member of Ghana's parliament was indicted by a U.S. court in 2002 for trafficking a Ghanaian woman to the United States for forced domestic servitude; Ghanaian authorities have yet to honor the U.S. request for the official's extradition, despite repeated U.S. efforts to secure the extradition. There were no reported investigations or prosecutions of official complicity in trafficking.

Protection

The Government of Ghana continued to demonstrate a commitment to protecting child trafficking victims. The government continued to operate two victim care facilities, though they are stretched beyond capacity. In 2006, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with IOM to establish a new victim rehabilitation center. The government continued providing in-kind assistance to an IOM victim rehabilitation center, providing the shelter building, all the furniture, social workers, and cooks. Fifty children were rehabilitated at this center in the last year. Ghana's new anti-trafficking law mandates the establishment of a Human Trafficking Fund to support protection efforts.

Prevention

The Ghanaian Government made modest efforts to prevent trafficking in persons. In 2006, the government held a two-day meeting for NGOs and donor agencies to improve coordination on anti-trafficking initiatives. As mandated under the new trafficking statute, the government is forming a 17-member Human Trafficking Management Board to help create and implement a national anti-trafficking action plan. The Board will replace Ghana's national trafficking task force. The government collaborated with the World Cocoa Foundation to draft a five-year national strategy to address child labor. The Ghana Education Service continued efforts to conduct programs to expand the access of children, in particular girls, to education. The government is also planning a nationwide public awareness campaign on the new trafficking law in 2006, but is still seeking funding for this program.

Topics: Trafficking in persons,