CHILD TRAFFICKING ON LAKE VOLTA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 001327 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM ELAB KTIP XY GH SUBJECT: CHILD TRAFFICKING ON LAKE VOLTA ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Poloff and Democracy and Human Rights Program Coordinator (DHRC) spent December 1-3 in fishing villages on Lake Volta with the West Africa Regional Director for the NGO Free the Slaves and the Director of the Ghanaian NGO Challenging Heights following children believed to have been trafficked. Emboffs saw over two dozen fishing canoes, each of which contained at least one and usually two or three boys between the ages of about 7 and 14. It was unclear whether the boys were trafficking victims or were children used by family members to work in hazardous conditions. Based on conversations with fisherman and villagers in the lake region, it appears that economic deprivation is a principal factor in the Lake Volta region that creates an environment in which trafficking and labor take place. Local and international NGOs are doing good work in rescuing children, but it does not address the causes of trafficking that are deeply entrenched: poverty, ignorance, and tradition. END SUMMARY ¶2. (U) For the three days December 1-3, Emboffs toured fishing villages along the shores of Lake Volta with NGO contacts Challenging Heights and Free the Slaves covering both the Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions to observe trafficked young boys fishing the lake. During the visit, Emboffs saw over two dozen fishing canoes each with usually three or four males in the canoe. In each boat, there was always a boy appearing to be between as young as 7 years and ¶14. Many boats had two or three young boys working the nets or paddling. ¶3. (U) According to NGO contacts working this issue, the boys usually work two shifts in a long day. The first shift starts about 04:00 when they take the canoes out to the designated fishing area and lay the nets at sunrise. The boys stay on the lake until about 11:00 when they return to shore for their first meal of the day. After a lunch of dried fish and a cup of rice, they return to the water and fish until dark, around 18:00. In an average day, the nets are set nine times, which means the boys are continuously setting then pulling into the canoe large lead weighted fishing nets. If the net becomes tangled or is caught on a stump, a boy must dive 15-20 feet to free the net, which is a leading cause of death by drowning. According to the NGOs, each year, at least a dozen boys are killed trying to untangle a net. Of the dozens of fish Emboffs saw, only one was a tilapia. The fish caught were primarily bottom feeders that looked like catfish or small minnow-like fish the size of an adult human index finger. ¶4. (U) According to the NGOs, specific towns in southern Ghana are "source villages" for trafficked boys, including Winneba and Ada. Traffickers from the fishing villages travel to the source town to recruit children to work on the lake. Parents give three main reasons why they sell their children. The main reason is poverty. Ignorance about exactly what is going to happen to the children is a secondary reason. The parents do not understand the full ramification of what their child will be doing. The parents often believe that the child will have a better life on the lake than what the family can provide at home. Another reason for trafficking is tradition. In some villages, children of successive generations are sent to work on the lake for a few years with the promise of returning home to go to school, usually after an older sibling has completed his education. ¶5. (U) Of the communities visited, not one had a school, and the NGOs told Emboffs that none of the village children attend school. This appears to be due in large part to the fact that the fishing villages are mobile, moving from place to place along the lake as conditions warrant. ¶6. (SBU) The NGOs have provided conflicting accounts of the role that law enforcement plays in their work. Challenging Heights told Emboffs that police are not interested in enforcing anti-trafficking laws in fishing villages. When a case if brought to their attention, said Challenging Heights, the police prepare a letter and ask the NGO to deliver it. At the same time, there appears to be a disincentive for NGOs to involve the police. Another Ghanaian NGO involved in rescuing children on Lake Volta told Emboffs that a critical part of his work is developing relationships with fishing villages and building confidence. If police arrested village members based on information from the NGO, he said that he would no longer be able to do his work. This NGO leader stressed to Poloff that law enforcement was not the right approach to resolving this problem, which requires economic development and sensitization. ¶7. (U) Poverty appears to be an overriding cause of trafficking. According to NGO contacts, children are seen as a commodity for families that have little to sell. In a video presentation that Challenging Heights uses to promote ACCRA 00001327 002 OF 002 awareness of trafficking, one woman said, "I did not bring forth many children. I had only six." She sold three of them. When asked if she was now rich after selling her children, she replied that no, she was still a poor woman. Another woman admitted that she has received 50 Ghana cedis (about $35) for her child. ¶8. (U) The economics of fishing is also a driving force behind the purchase of children. Fisherman need the children for cheap labor because of the shortage of adults willing to do their difficult work. Children are used for all aspects of fishing, from paddling canoes and setting nets, to bailing water from the perpetually leaking canoes and mending nets. ¶9. (U) Comment: While NGOs are performing important work rescuing child trafficking victims, and the police have taken some steps to prosecute traffickers, the problem of trafficking on Lake Volta will like persist without a comprehensive economic development plan that would eliminate the financial incentives of trafficking. In addition, the lack of educational opportunities, due to the fact that fishing settlements are temporary and transient means that children and adults in these communities are illiterate and have few alternatives to earn a living. Greater police involvement could create some disincentive to traffickers, but in the long-term, a greater emphasis on economic development and education is essential if fishing communities are to obtain opportunities that make child trafficking unattractive. Without increased educational and economic opportunity, the good works of NGOs are only masking the problem. NGOs are only able to rescue one child at a time and only several dozen in a year. End Comment TEITELBAUM