Lack of data worsens human trafficking

Published in the Daily Graphic on 29/04/2010, pg 51

Story: Matilda Attram
The Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, has identified the lack of comprehensive data, research and information as a major setback in its efforts at eliminating human trafficking in the country.
She said the inability of researchers to collect, collate and analyse information into a national database for planning affected proposed programmes for the fight against human trafficking.
The minister said this when she launched ‘Intervention and Database on Human Trafficking in Ghana’, a research by Rescue Foundation, Ghana.
The event, which was held in Accra yesterday, was to officially present to the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs a documented data on the research undertaken by the organisation and its partners on human trafficking in Ghana.
Mrs Azumah-Mensah said frequent reports on human trafficking in the country would help the government strategise its measures at eliminating the phenomenon and improving on its development efforts.
According to her, Ghana had been cited as a source, transit and receiving country for human trafficking by the Trafficking in Persons Report Department of the United States of America (USA).
She said the government was determined to eliminate human trafficking in the country, hence the passage of the Human Trafficking Act (Act 694) in 2005.
“Eliminating human trafficking is a priority for the government of Ghana, as enshrined in its Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II), apart from the establishment of agencies to promote human rights,” she added.
She commended the Rescue Foundation for a good work done and called on all to join in the fight against the phenomenon to enable Ghana to achieve its objectives.
In a presentation, the Research Officer at the Department of Children (DoC) at the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mr Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi, indicated that most traffickers were found to be Ghanaians.
According to him, 1,808 people were rescued from human trafficking in the country between 1998 and 2010, noting that the victims comprised 1,124 females, 614 males and 70 others whose gender could not be identified by the researchers.
He said 77.7 per cent of the victims investigated were children below 16.
Mr Kyei-Gyamfi observed that although human trafficking was a serious crime, people who engaged in it faced no harsh punishment.
He added that poverty was the main cause of human trafficking in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rescue Foundation, Ghana, Mrs Sylvia Hinson-Ekong, said the collection of secondary data that emanated from projects and implemented by organisations working on human trafficking had become the singular source of information for the country.
She added that many organisations implemented projects but did not make data collection and management a crucial part of the implementation process.
She described Rescue Foundation as a non-governmental organisation which partnered the security agencies, the ministry, the Department of Social Welfare, among other institutions, in a form of capacity building to rescue trafficked victims, especially children.
She advised parents to refrain from giving away their children to strangers, since the practice hindered victims’ education and potential.