Trafficking in Persons Report Rollout in Ghana

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 001606 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KOCI KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL GH SUBJECT: Trafficking in Persons Report Rollout in Ghana REF: State 71163 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: PolChief and Human Rights Coordinator recently met with senior Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) officials to discuss the 2007 Trafficking and Persons (TIP) Report. MOWAC reps were disappointed with Ghana's Tier 2 ranking and asked that any reference to the Grace Coleman extradition case be removed from next year's narrative. GOG officials outlined several steps Ghana is taking to combat TIP, but local NGO sources questioned the effectiveness of these efforts. Post recently hosted an event to honor Patience Quaye, who was chosen as one of the Department's eight TIP Heroines for 2007. End Summary. MEETING WITH MINISTRY OFFICIALS -------------- ¶2. (U) On June 13 PolChief and Democracy and Human Rights Coordinator met with the Chief Director of the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC),Valentine Kuuzume, and the Desk Officer for Trafficking, Marilyn Annan, to discuss Ghana's Tier 2 ranking in the TIP Report this year. The Chief Director appreciated that the country narrative recognized some of Ghana's efforts in combating trafficking. He reiterated the need for funding in the area of victim rehabilitation and was disappointed that the embassy had not done as much as he would have liked to support anti-trafficking activities by MOWAC. ¶3. (SBU) The Trafficking Desk Officer, Marilyn Annan, said that she was particularly disappointed in the ranking since she believed that the GoG had done more than enough to ensure a Tier 1 ranking. She also requested that future reports remove the portion of the narrative regarding the extradition of Member of Parliament Grace Coleman. Annan thought the Coleman issue had been blown out of proportion. PolChief was firm that Coleman had violated U.S. law and we would not be removing her from our TIP report. He also reminded her that the Embassy had sent several diplomatic notes to the MFA requesting Coleman's extradition but we have received no response. ¶4. (U) Kuuzume told us that even though President Kufuor had not formally signed the paper creating the Human Trafficking Board (HTB),he has authorized it to begin working and it will be formally commissioned later. The MOWAC officials also informed us that the Human Trafficking Fund (HTF) is up and running. The GoG has already committed 100 million cedis ($9,250) to the fund, all of which has been spent on rescuing "kayaye," or street children, and rehabilitating them before they are sent back to their families, according to Kuuzume. ¶5. (SBU) The MOWAC officials went on to describe several projects that their ministry is implementing to combat trafficking, some of which included the creation of a national database for trafficking victims, identification of women eligible for micro-finance from MOWAC in Yeiji, assistance given to fishermen in Yeiji to encourage them to release trafficked children. CEREMONY TO HONOR TIP HEROINE -------------- ¶6. (U) Post recently organized an event to officially present Patience Quaye with her TIP Heroine 2007 award. The Ambassador gave remarks and attendees included approximately 40 members of the judiciary, parliamentarians, NGO representatives, civil society organizations and media. Quaye expressed gratitude to the Department of State for recognition of her efforts and Joanna Sarpong, the Director of Human Resources for the Ghana Police, who filled in for the Inspector General of Police, thanked Quaye as well as the embassy for our joint efforts to combat trafficking. The event received coverage in several prominent newspapers and Quaye was also interviewed live about the award on one of Ghana's radio stations. COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The demarche on the TIP tier ranking and our public event helped reinforce our TIP message. However, MOWAC's response was disappointing. At the TIP rollout ceremony, contacts from UNICEF, IOM and ILO discounted MOWAC's claimed recent successes. UNICEF, for example, has provided a computer and training for a national database, but a UNICEF contact said that MOWAC is no closer to attaining this objective now than they were in February when an inter-agency trafficking committee last met. UNICEF also confirmed that they have funds set aside for the Human Trafficking Fund but are not willing to give it to MOWAC until the Board is formally established by President Kufuor. Although MOWAC told us the Board has been established, it has yet to provide us with a list of Board members. Although there were conflicting events in town, we were disappointed no one from MOWAC attended our event for Quaye. We will look for ways to more effectively engage MOWAC on TIP, including ensuring their participation in up-coming TIP law ACCRA 00001606 002 OF 002 enforcement training. BRIDGEWATER