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