Hon. Lariba Zuweira Abudu, deputy minister and minister designate for gender, children, and social protection, has urged all Ghanaians to take up the battle against persistent human trafficking as a shared responsibility.
She thought it was quite concerning because the canker has been spreading across the nation.
She said this can be done by showing concerns for people who may look stranded by self acclaimed agents at the exit points such as airports, boarders, beaches etc.
Addressing the media during a capacity building program on human trafficking and migration for law enforcement officers in the Ashanti Region, the minister said 871 human trafficking cases have so far been recorded from January to August this year, as compared to last year, 2021 where the country recorded 531.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) in collaboration with Expertise France has been organising a capacity building training for law enforcement officers across the country.
This comes on the backdrop of the rising spate at which most people in their quest to secure greener pastures are being deceived mostly by self acclaimed agents, to travel. Whilst some Ghanaians travel to get stranded outside the country, there are some others from other countries who are made to enter Ghana through illegal means.
Human trafficking which has been the unlawful act of transporting or coercing people in order to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labour or sexual exploitation has created a lot of challenge, thus in Ghana and Africa in general. This worrying canker has almost become a norm, thus both within and outside.
Speaking to Ghanaweb after the Ashanti regional section of the program held at the Noda hotel in Fumasua on Wednesday, the Minister who adds as the Member of Parliament for Walewale constituency said, one of the Ministry’s mandate in implementing the human trafficking national plan of action was to support the security agencies with specialised capacity building trainings to enable the officers have stronger grip on issues of human trafficking, child protection and irregular migration.
She further disclosed that the workshop mainly aimed at enhancing the Police, Migration, Customs, Gender and EOCO officials on how to help fight against human trafficking in Ghana.
According to her, over three hundred and seventy five members have so far been trained for that purpose, and eighty officers have also received an advance level training.
“Officers who have so far received this training will be able to identify stranded migrants who may be attempted to be misled into or outside the country and do the necessary intervention”. She said.
She finally admonished Ghanaians to as a matter of urgency put the ‘see something say something’ mantra into practice.
Meanwhile, some beneficiary officers who attended the capacity building program commended the ministry for such a wonderful initiative. According to them, the program has equipped them to know how to identify trafficking victims, defaulting agents and any other suspected cases of human trafficking.
“We’re very happy with this exercise. Now we can be able to identify and intervene into more of such cases due to the initiative”. Some of the officers said.