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Ghana: Human trafficking hub
30/07/2005 13:34 - (SA)
Accra - Ghana is a source, transit point and destination for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced domestic commercial labour, a United States official said in Accra on Friday.
Rachel Yousey of the US. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons said a report on the human trafficking situation in Ghana showed that Ghanaian children were trafficked internally for forced labour in fishing villages and cocoa plantations and were sent to urban areas in the South to work under exploitative conditions as domestic servants, street vendors and porters.
Ghanaian children are also trafficked to Ivory Coast, Togo and Nigeria, said Yousey, who is on a five-nation African tour that will also take her to Togo, Benin, South Africa and Mozambique.
Recruiters typically target poor children, who are removed from their home communities with their parents' consent, she said.
New bill praised
She said women and girls are trafficked to Western Europe, principally Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, where they are sexually exploited. Some young Ghanaian women end up in domestic servitude in the Middle East.
Yousey said Nigerian females en route to Western Europe for sexual exploitation transit Ghana. Burkina Faso victims pass through Ghana on their way to Ivory Coast.
Foreign victims of human trafficking include children brought to Ghana en route to Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin and Nigeria for forced labour, involuntary domestic servitude and sexual exploitation.
Yousey said the report indicated that prominent among those trafficked were children, and yet data on them was rather low.
She praised Ghana for passing a bill on Thursday that seeks to prevent, suppress and punish persons or groups who engage in human trafficking. Yousey said the legislation would give Ghanaian law enforcement agencies backing to help them stem the significant human trafficking. The bill must be signed by the president to take effect. - Sapa-dpa
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