2004 TRAFFICKING IN PERSON REPORT - GHANA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 ACCRA 000370

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DEPT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, AF/RSA
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB GH
SUBJECT: 2004 TRAFFICKING IN PERSON REPORT - GHANA

REF: STATE 7869

The following responses are keyed to reftel.

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Para 18: Overview
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A. Ghana is both a country of origin and a destination for
internationally trafficked persons. Internal trafficking
appears more common than cross-border trafficking; however,
internal trafficking has been examined more closely by local
NGOs and International Organizations than cross-border
trafficking. The Government does not have official figures
on the number of trafficked persons, either domestic or
cross-border, and estimates are difficult to come by and of
limited reliability.


B. Domestically, most trafficking is in children. Children
are sent from the coastal areas to work in the fishing
communities along the Volta Lake, and from the northern
regions to the cities of Accra and Kumasi to work as domestic
helpers, porters, and assistants to local traders.

Internationally, the majority of trafficking involves
children between the ages of seven and seventeen being
shipped to and from the neighboring countries of Cote
d'Ivoire, Togo and Nigeria to work as laborers or household
help, or young women to work as prostitutes. Ghana is also a
transit country. There is a growing trade in Nigerian women
transiting Ghana on their way to Western Europe to work in
the sex industry, and there is reportedly some trafficking in
persons from Burkina Faso, going through Ghana on their way
to Cote d'Ivoire. Ghana Police Interpol officers have
recognized a possible trend of Ghanaian expatriates returning
to Ghana to marry young girls only to engage them in
prostitution once in Europe.


C. Due to a lack of current reliable data, we have not been
able to detect any appreciable changes in the direction or
extent of trafficking over the past year.


D. The most detailed surveys to date have been done by the
African Center for Human Development (April 2002) and the
Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment in conjuction
with the ILO (February 2001). Other NGOs have studied
specific pockets of domestic trafficking sending and
receiving areas. No other studies are currently projected.
Most efforts to combat trafficking in the past year have
focused on awareness creation, rescue/repatriation of
domestically trafficked children and poverty reduction.


E. Ghana is not a major destination for internationally
trafficked victims. Those trafficked domestically are used
primarily for labor. A February 2002 study funded by the
Danish government through a local NGO found that the largest
percentage of trafficked children work in the local fishing
industry (39 percent),while 30 percent engage in selling, 20
percent work as domestic laborers, eight percent as porters
and three percent in farming. The laborers are either not
paid at all, or given very low wages. Many children suffer
serious abuse, malnutrition, long working hours. Most are
denied the opportunity of an education. Because trafficked
children are often sent away by families unable to support
them, and sometimes in exchange for cash payments, they
cannot easily return home despite their maltreatment.


F. Children from impoverished rural backgrounds are the
primary victims of trafficking from Ghana to other countries.
Recruited children are usually between the ages of seven and
fifteen, although there are reports of trafficked children as
young as four. Much of the recruitment of children is done
with the consent of the parents, who are sometimes given an
advance payment or promised regular stipends from the
recruiter. The parents are told the children will receive
food, shelter, and often some sort of vocational training or
education. Some children are sent to work for extended
family members in urban areas, who may treat the children
relatively well. Many, however, are given to professional
recruiters, who, upon reaching the cities, hand the children
off to those who will be their actual employers. In many
cases, the children never receive the promised education or
vocational training. Young Ghanaian women are also
reportedly targeted by international traffickers promising
jobs in Western Europe. As mentioned in Para 18, B, police
officials have noticed a trend of Ghanaian expatriates
offering young women marriage and a promising new life in
Western Europe only to end in prostitution. They are sent
mostly to Germany, Italy, or the Netherlands, either directly
or indirectly through neighboring countries. Some young
women also end up in the Middle East, where they work menial
jobs or as domestic help.

G. Despite its enormous resource constraints, the GOG is
making a good faith effort to seriously address trafficking.
Political will exists at the highest levels. Most efforts
during the year continued to focus on programs outside the
legal system - prevention and protection of victims.
Throughout the year, GOG officials collaborated with
international donors and NGOs to repatriate trafficked
children, reintegrate them into the formal education system,
and offer poverty reduction assistance to parents. NGOs and
GOG officials repatriated over 1,000 children during the
year. UNICEF and the Ministry of Women and Children's
Affairs (MWCA) provided vocational training to girls engaged
in "kayayei" or itinerant portering. The MWCA also worked to
encourage parents who sold their children to bring them home
in exchange for business assistance, vocational training,
credit facilities, assistance with school fees and school
uniforms. The Ministry of Manpower Development and
Employment worked with Catholic Action for Street Children
and other NGOs to assist street children. On June 12 for the
World Day Against Child Labor, Members of Parliament debated
the issue of child labor and child trafficking. In November
2003, the Vice President condemned the "slavery and
trafficking of children for labor" in a keynote address at a
conference on the historic slave trade. In the annual budget
statement to Parliament, read at the beginning of February,
2004, the Minister of Finance announced the administration's
intention to submit the Human Trafficking Bill to Parliament
this year, and highlighted efforts taken in 2003 to combat
trafficking and child labor, assist street children, and
alleviate poverty, especially through women's development
programs.

In summer 2003, the World Bank provided a USD 2.3 million
loan that the GOG has used to assist street children (many of
whom were likely trafficked) in the major metropolitan areas
of Ghana (Accra/Tema, Sekondi/Takoradi, Kumasi, and Tamale).
The Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment continues
to implement the one-year program, which tests strategies for
delivering integrated support services (skills development,
health services, HIV/AIDs awareness, and family services) to
street children in order to develop a well-rounded policy to
assist them.

The MWCA established a Women's Development Fund, disbursing
10 billion cedis ($1.1 million) in credit facilities to
appproximately 20,000 women. Mothers of trafficked children
received over 835 million cedis ($95,000) to assist with
school fees and uniforms and business assistance.

While the mainstay of GOG and NGO actions focused on social
solutions to trafficking, the GOG also continued to develop
the Human Trafficking bill. The Ministry of Manpower
Development and Employment finally recruited a permanent
Chief Director in October, who has since called several
meetings of the National Human Trafficking Task Force to
discuss how the draft trafficking legislation could be
improved. The Chief Director intends to call one more
meeting (likely in March) to collect stakeholder comments and
forward them to the Ministry of Justice before the draft bill
is submitted to Parliament.


H. There is no evidence that Government authorities, or
individual members of government forces, act to facilitate,
condone, or are complicit, take bribes, or assist in
trafficking operations.


I. The Government is limited in addressing the problem of
trafficking by both culture and resources. Child trafficking
in Ghana is difficult to define. Children from rural
communities are commonly sent by their parents to work as
housemaids for distant relatives in cities; a practice known
as "fostering." Given the severe poverty that many rural
families face, sending a child to work for well-off relations
in the city, with the hope that the child will receive some
vocational training or education, is regarded as a genuine
attempt to improve that child's opportunities. The idea that
sending children to live with extended family members under
these circumstances is "trafficking" would make little sense
to many Ghanaians. Other, more exploitative forms of
trafficking, such as cross-border trafficking or situations
where the children are recruited by professionals who traffic
them for profit, are recognized as problems by the
Government, but resources are scarce. Law enforcement
authorities are not equipped with adequate training or
financial resources to deal with the problem. Police
officers complain that lack of legislation criminalizing
trafficking seriously hampers their efforts to combat the
crime. The Government is currently vetting a draft bill that
in addition to criminalizing trafficking, would also
establish a victims fund for protection and rehabilitation as
well as prevention efforts.


J. The Government does monitor anti-trafficking efforts, but
perhaps more haphazardly than systematically. The
International Labor Organization's International Program to
Eliminate Child Labor (ILO/IPEC) frequently holds stakeholder
meetings and the Ministry of Manpower Development and
Employment has hosted several National Human Trafficking Task
Force meetings in the Fall. The meetings include the
Ministries of Interior, Women and Children's Affairs,
Manpower Development and Employment, members of the Police
Service, Immigration Service, Customs, NGOs, IOs,
international donors, trade unions, and employers
associations. While ILO/IPEC programs require such
stakeholder meetings, in effect, they build the capacity of
the National Task Force, which includes the same players.
The draft trafficking legislation is expected to better
formalize the coordinating and monitoring functions of the
National Task Force.


K. Prostitution is illegal.


L. Forced childhood marriage is illegal and a problem.
However, child brides are neither bought, sold nor imported
from abroad, and the government does enforces the law.
Interpol officers report a recent trend of Ghanaian
expatriates returning to Ghana to marry young women, who are
later forced into prostitution in Western Europe. However,
these women appear to be tricked into the marriage (not
bought or sold) in hopes of a better life abroad. On August
15, 2003, a Circuit Court in Wa, Upper West Region sentences
a farmer to prison for 14 years for sexually assaulting and
marrying a 14 year old girl.

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Para 19: Prevention
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A. Yes, the Government acknowledges that trafficking is a
problem and has begun to address the problem on a coordinated
and systematic basis (see para 18, G).


B. The following government agencies are involved in
anti-trafficking efforts: the Ministry of Interior
(responsible for the Ghana Police Service and Ghana
Immigration Service); the Ministry of Manpower Development
and Employment (responsible for vocational training programs
and the Department of Social Welfare); the Ministry of Women
and Children's Affairs (responsible for advocacy of women and
children's rights).


C. Almost all anti-trafficking information or education
campaigns have been run either in coordination with NGOs and
International Organizations (IOs) or by the NGOs or IOs
themselves. The Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC
- part of the MWCA) has sponsored formal community gatherings
to discuss the hazards of trafficking. The WAJU has
participated in information campaigns in Kokrobite, a coastal
village known for sending children to work along the Volta
Lake, as well as two bus/transit stations in Accra, to
educate drivers on how to identify trafficking victims. NGOs
have initiated anti-trafficking poster campaigns, community
gatherings, and media campaigns.


D. The Government is very supportive of programs to prevent
trafficking, but usually relies on outside donor funding to
maintain them.

The Government of Ghana pays approximately 10 percent of the
costs of ILO/IPEC programs to combat trafficking and child
labor, and provides office space to ILO/IPEC staff. In
addition, the GOG supports programs designed to empower women
and children that indirectly helps prevent trafficking (often
using donated or debt-forgiveness funds). Certain components
of the Government's National Poverty Reduction Program are
designed to alleviate child poverty and improve children's
access to education, and the Ministry of Women's Affairs runs
programs which serve to educate women on the importance of
children's education. The Ghana Education Service has an
extensive program to promote girl-child education, and
includes child labor issues in its curriculum.


E. The Government does support programs (see above),though
scarcity of resources is always a problem.


F. The Government's relationship with NGOs, international
organizations, and civil society is very constructive.

G. The Director of Ghana Immigration is committeed to
combatting human trafficking. However, like police
counterparts, Immigration officers complain they are
constrained by the lack of legislation criminalizing
trafficking. In addition, the GOG does not have the required
resources to adequately monitor and control Ghana's lengthy
land borders. The lack of sufficient data to monitor
immigration patterns, for example, stems from the lack of
communication infrastructure between border posts and their
regional offices.


H. See para 18, G and J. The National Task Force on Human
Trafficking currently works on policy, but is projected to
become a coordinating body after the passage of legislation
to combat trafficking.


I. In the past, the GOG has particpated in Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) conferences on
trafficking in persons, however this year, there have been no
such conferences. Security and Social Welfare agencies do
cooperate with their international counterparts.


J. The GOG does have a National Plan to Combat Trafficking,
as well as a National Task Force. (Para 18 G and J). In
October 2001, Ghana hosted a meeting of ECOWAS Experts
Against Trafficking in Persons, which resulted in a regional
plan of action that called for states to establish their own
action plans, national task forces and national awareness
campaigns. The GOG formally launched their task force and
national plan in March 2002, which was slow to develop due to
changes in directorships of important Ministries such as
Manpower Development and Employment. However, with a
permanant Chief Director of Manpower Development and
Employment installed in the summer of 2003, and the UN Office
of Drugs and Crime offering assistance with the Task Force
and Plan of Action in the fall, the effort has been revived
in ernest. Since then, several Task Force meetings have been
held to critically review the draft trafficking legislation.


K. The Ministry of Justice has the lead on developing the
new law against trafficking. The Ministry of Manpower
Development and Employment's child labor unit takes the lead
on programs to combat child labor, and its Social Welfare
Department offers victims protection. The Ministry of
Interior leads law enforcement efforts. The draft
trafficking bill will establish the Minister of either
Manpower Development and Employment or the Minister of Women
and Children's Affairs as the Chair on the National Task
Force on Human Trafficking.

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Para 20: Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers
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A. There is no specific provision in Ghanaian law outlawing
trafficking in persons. There are laws against slavery,
prostitution, rape (including child rape, termed
"defilement"),use of underage labor, child stealing,
kidnapping, abduction, manufacture of fraudulent
documentation, etc. Traffickers may be prosecuted under
these statutes, however, police officials claim they are
often inadequate. For example, a child trafficker who has
obtained the child with the parent's consent cannot be
charged with abduction. During the fall, the Ministry of
Manpower Development and Employment organized several
workshops for stakeholders to review the draft trafficking
legislation, with the intention of compiling all comments and
submitting them to the Ministry of Justice to revise the
draft before it is sent to Parliament. In February 2004, the
Minister of Finance announced the administration's intention
to submit the bill to Parliament this year.


B. There are currently no specific penalties for
trafficking, but penalties for related offenses range from
six months to 25 years.


C. Rape is punishable by 7 to 25 years in prison.


D. In the past, traffickers have been prosecuted under
statutes listed in para 20, item A. Information on
sentencing of traffickers is not kept separately from other
data on sentencing for rape, kidnapping, and other offenses
for which traffickers can be prosecuted. During the year,
police arrested four persons for trafficking-related
offenses, however, none were convicted, police officials say,
due to the lack of an anti-trafficking law. Also during the
year, a couple in the Eastern Region was sentenced to 2 years
in prison and fined approximately $1,150 for trying to sell a
neighbor's 3-year-old son. A woman accused of taking four
Ghanaian girls to work as prostitutes in Nigeria was released
when the girls failed to show up in court to testify. A
court in the Upper East Region arraigned a woman who was
arrested in 2001 for trafficking eight boys and three girls
to the Gambia. The trial is still ongoing, as is a 2002 case
of traffickers intercepted with 50 children.


E. Within Ghana, brokers or recruiters procure children from
rural areas and move them to the locations where they will
work (see para 18, F.) These recruiters may move as many as
ten children at one time. Internationally, some trafficking
groups are reportedly taking advantage of Ghana's growing
international air links by moving Nigerian women through
Ghana to Europe.


F. Local law enforcement does not use any special techniques
in the detection or investigation of trafficking, however,
there are several cases involving detection of trafficking by
police through tip-offs by local residents.


G. The National Plan to Combat Trafficking includes a
training component for police and immigration officers.


H. As per responses to Paragraph 19, the GOG does cooperate
with other governments, chiefly through the existing ECOWAS
Plan of Action. Post is not aware of any international
investigations.


I. We have no examples of the extradition of accused
traffickers.


J. There is no evidence of government involvement in or
tolerance of international trafficking. However, it is more
difficult to assess the Government's position on domestic
trafficking. It is commonplace for poor children from rural
areas to go to cities and work as domestic help for extended
family relations. This is not viewed as "trafficking" and is
not illegal in Ghana, but is seen as a way of giving the
children improved opportunity. Increasingly, government
officials are becoming aware that this traditional fostering
practice can be exploitative and constitute a human rights
abuse.


K. We are unaware of any Government officials involved in
trafficking.


L. Ghana ratified the UN Convention on the Rights on the
Child in 1989 becoming one of the first countries to do so,
and codified child rights with the 1998 Children's Act. On
September 24, 2003, Ghana signed the Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of
children, child prostitution, and child pornography. The
Government ratified ILO Convention 182 in May 2001 and ILO
Convention 29 in 1957. Ghana has not ratified ILO Convention
105 or the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons.

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Para 21: Protection and Assistance to Victims
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A. Social Welfare Offices are present in every Region and
District in the country. However, any protection or shelter
given to the victims of trafficking, either international or
domestic, is done on a case-by-case basis, as resources are
limited. In many cases, the authorities do try to reunite
trafficked and abused children with their families. NGOs
have sought to provide services the police and social
services cannot by establishing several crisis centers.
However, as awareness of the problem grows and trafficking
victims seek assistance, the limited resources available for
such assistance will be overstretched.


B. See para 19, D.


C. Trafficking victims are generally referred to the Women
and Juvenile Unit of the Police (WAJU) and to the Social
Welfare Department.


D. If they are arrested, the victims of international
trafficking are prosecuted on an occasional, case-by-case
basis, for offenses such as posession of altered documents.
There were no cases of trafficking victims prosecuted during
this reporting period.


E. We are unaware of trafficking victims being encouraged to
seek redress against traffickers.


F. The Government does not provide specific protection for
victims of trafficking beyond those available to all crime
victims or witnesses.


G. Much of the specialized training for officials in the
past year has been sponsored by NGOs with outside donor
funds. ILO/IPEC provided training to Ghanaian (and Nigerian)
security services in October 2003.


H. The Government provides assistance to repatriated
trafficking victims on an ad-hoc basis. There has been a
strong emphasis on repatriating domestically trafficked
children and providing their parents with assistance and
credit facilities to help alleviate poverty and better enable
the parents to care for their children. WAJU assists victims
of abuse and violence, including trafficking victims. Crisis
centers are few. The Department of Social Welfare has a few
children's homes and remand homes, but these are generally
inappropriate and inadequate to deal with trafficking
victims. NGOs, working closely with local authorities, are
stepping in where official resources are lacking to provide
safe havens, counseling and transportation back home.


I. Several national and international NGOs as well as
International Organizations work with trafficking victims.
African Center for Human Development, Save the Children UK,
Children in Need, Action Aid, Catholic Action for Street
Children, Parent and Child Foundation, Ghana NGO Coalition on
the Rights of the Child, Coalition for Women in Distress,
ILO/IPEC, International Organization for Migration and UNICEF
all work in the areas of child labor and support for street
children. These organizations conduct studies into
trafficking as part of their broader agenda, perform some
rescue operations for street kids, provide training and
education for victims of trafficking and abuse, and, in some
cases, offer family reunification. National and local
government authorities collaborate with these NGOs to combat
trafficking in persons.
Yates