GHANA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

UNCLAS STATE 060557

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG GH
SUBJECT: GHANA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND
DEMARCHE

REF: A. (A) STATE 59732

B. (B) STATE 005577


1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10.


2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a
press conference in the Department's press briefing room.
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic
and foreign news outlets. Until the time of the Secretary's
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or
country narratives contained therein is prohibited.


3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter. Also provided
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government
of Ghana of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's imminent
release. The text of the TIP Report country narrative is
provided, both for use in informing the Government of Ghana,
and in any local media release by Post's public affairs
section on June 16 or thereafter. Drawing on information
provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post may provide the host
government with the text of the TIP Report narrative no
earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday June 15 for WHA, AF,
EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local time Tuesday June 16 for
SCA and EAP posts. Please note, however, that any public
release of the Report's information should not/not precede
the Secretary's release at 10:00 am EDT on June 16.


4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16
release. Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts
in all countries appearing on the Report. The Secretary's
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website
shortly after the June 16 event. Ambassador de Baca will
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT.


5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform
the appropriate official in the Government of Ghana of the
June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points
in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of
the country narrative provided in para 8. For countries
where the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it
is particularly important to advise governments prior to the
Report being released in Washington on June 16.


6. Action Request continued: Please note that, for those
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the
narrative text. This engagement is important to establishing
the framework in which the government's performance will be
judged for the 2010 Report. If posts have questions about
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report,
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau.


7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the
press guidance provided in para 11. If Post wishes, a local
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP
Report's country narrative provided in para 8.


8. Begin Final Text of Ghana,s country narrative in the
2009 TIP Report:

--------------

Ghana (TIER 2 Watch List)
--------------

Ghana is a source, transit, and destination country for
children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced
labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking within
the country is more prevalent than transnational trafficking
and the majority of victims are children. Both boys and
girls are trafficked within Ghana for forced labor in
agriculture and the fishing industry, for street hawking,
forced begging by religious instructors, as porters, and
possibly for forced kente weaving. Over 30,000 children are
believed to be working as porters, or Kayaye, in Accra alone.
Annually, the IOM reports numerous deaths of boys trafficked
for hazardous forced labor in the Lake Volta fishing
industry. Girls are trafficked within the country for
domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. To a lesser
extent, boys are also trafficked internally for sexual
exploitation, primarily for sex tourism.

Transnationally, children are trafficked between Ghana and
other West African countries, primarily Cote d,Ivoire, Togo,
Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Gabon for the same purposes
listed above. Children are trafficked through Ghana for
forced labor in agriculture in Cote d,Ivoire, including on
cocoa farms. Women and girls are trafficked for sexual
exploitation from Ghana to Western Europe, from Nigeria
through Ghana to Western Europe, and from Burkina Faso
through Ghana to Cote d,Ivoire. During the year, Chinese
women were trafficked to Ghana for sexual exploitation and a
Ghanaian woman was also trafficked to Kuwait for forced
labor. In 2008, the UN reported that a form of ritual
servitude called Trokosi, in which young girls are subjected
to forced labor and sexual servitude, continues in at least
23 fetish shrines.

The Government of Ghana does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite
limited resources. During the year, Ghanaian police
intercepted a greater number of trafficking victims than the
prior year. Despite these efforts, the government
demonstrated weak efforts in prosecuting and punishing
trafficking offenders or ensuring that victims receive
adequate care; therefore, Ghana is placed on Tier 2 Watch
List.

Recommendations for Ghana: Increase efforts to prosecute
and convict trafficking offenders, including those who
subject children to forced labor in the Lake Volta fishing
industry and those who force Ghanaian children and foreign
women into prostitution; establish additional victim
shelters, particularly for sex trafficking victims; continue
to apply Trafficking Victim Fund monies to victim care; and
train officials to identify trafficking victims among women
in prostitution and to respect victims, rights.

Prosecution
--------------
The Government of Ghana demonstrated minimal efforts to
combat trafficking through law enforcement efforts during the
last year. Ghana prohibits all forms of trafficking through
its 2005 Human Trafficking Act, which prescribes a minimum
penalty of five years, imprisonment for all forms of
trafficking. This penalty is sufficiently stringent and
commensurate with penalties prescribed for rape. The
government reported arresting 16 suspected traffickers during
the year, five of whom were prosecuted. In March 2009, the
government obtained the conviction of a woman for trafficking
a Togolese girl for forced labor, and she was sentenced to
eight years, imprisonment. Eleven suspected traffickers
remain under investigation. There were no reported criminal
investigations or prosecutions of acts relating to the forced
labor of children in the Lake Volta fishing industry.
Although four Chinese nationals arrested in February 2009
were prosecuted for trafficking seven Chinese women to Accra
for sexual exploitation, a verdict has not yet been
delivered. A religious instructor arrested in July 2008 for
subjecting 15 children to forced labor and one child to
sexual servitude has not yet been prosecuted. Rather than
being charged with the offense of trafficking, he was charged
under the more lenient Children,s Act and remains free on
bail. During the year, the public prosecutor dropped a case
against suspected traffickers arrested in November 2007 for
forcing 17 women into prostitution, despite significant
evidence against them, such as video recordings of them
bribing immigration officials. The case was dropped when the
victims, all of whom have returned to Nigeria, would not
agree to testify. The government also failed to prosecute
traffickers arrested in January 2008 for sexual exploitation
of children, despite videotaped evidence of this exploitation
at an Accra brothel, which remains open for business. In
2008 the Public Prosecutor,s Office opened an
anti-trafficking desk staffed with three prosecutors trained
about trafficking.
Protection
--------------
The Ghanaian government demonstrated increased efforts to
identify trafficking victims, but took inadequate steps to
provide them with care during the year. The government
contributed personnel to its Madina shelter, which is funded
primarily by IOM to provide care to child victims of
trafficking in the fishing industry. At the shelter, staff
from the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) provided
rehabilitation assistance to child victims rescued and
referred by IOM. DSW staff provided rehabilitation
assistance to victims in their communities of origin as well
once the children were reunited with their families. The
government continued to lack shelters for sex trafficking
victims. Police rescued 221 child labor trafficking victims,
and seven adult Chinese women forced into prostitution. The
government was unable to provide comprehensive information
about how many of these victims it provided with care.
Fifteen child victims were provided with care in a DSW
shelter in northern Ghana by a government-salaried social
worker, while an NGO and private donor provided food,
clothing, and education for the children. The government
returned three of the child victims to the suspected
trafficker, who remains out on bail. Two of the victims were
repatriated to Togo by an NGO, while the remaining victims
were returned to their families in Ghana. The government
released ten girl victims of forced child labor identified in
August 2008 into the custody of a man claiming to be from the
children,s village. He housed them at a bus station until
NGOs requested that the government move them to an NGO
shelter. In December 2008, the government allocated $75,000
to the Human Trafficking Fund it established in 2007 to
provide victim care. In April 2009, the government provided
a portion of these funds to a local NGO to help care for sex
trafficking victims the NGO has sheltered at a hotel since
their rescue in February 2009. Police provided limited
security at the hotel.

While authorities increasingly employ procedures to identify
forced labor trafficking victims among immigrants at border
posts, they do not follow procedures to identify trafficking
victims among females found in prostitution. The government
encouraged victims to assist in investigation and prosecution
of traffickers, though many victims were children afraid to
provide testimony. During the year, police interviewed seven
Chinese sex trafficking victims to assist with prosecution.
During the trial, however, officials forced these women to
testify in court against their will, causing them emotional
trauma. The government provided limited and temporary legal
alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries
where they face hardship or retribution; generally victims
may remain in Ghana only during the period of investigation
and prosecution. With the Interior Minister,s approval,
however, a trafficking victim may remain permanently in Ghana
if it is deemed to be in the victim,s best interest.

Prevention
--------------
The Government of Ghana demonstrated weak efforts to prevent
trafficking over the last year. The government conducted
anti-trafficking information and education campaigns during
the reporting period. Counter-trafficking officials appeared
regularly with anti-trafficking messages on radio talk shows
and on television. The police held anti-trafficking public
awareness meetings in areas of the country with a high
incidence of trafficking and provided anti-trafficking
educational materials to rural officials and local
magistrates. The government also reached out to Nigerian
officials through video conferences to request guidance in
forming a national anti-trafficking agency. In June 2008, in
collaboration with private cocoa companies, the government
released a report on the incidence of child labor and adult
forced labor in its cocoa sector. The Human Trafficking
Board established in July 2007 met eight times in 2008. The
government provided Ghanaian troops with anti-trafficking
awareness training through a donor-funded program before
being deployed abroad as part of international peacekeeping
missions. Ghana took minimal measures to reduce demand for
commercial sex acts by conducting a raid on a brothel
exploiting trafficking victims, and prosecuting the suspected
traffickers. The government failed to close down a brothel
prostituting children, however. It took no discernable steps
to address the demand for forced labor. Ghana has not
ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.


9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer
technical and legal l background on the TIP Report process,
to the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP
Report country narrative:

(begin non-paper)

-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA),
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to
Congress. The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and
create partnerships around the world in the fight against
modern-day slavery. The USG approach to combating human
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol"). The TVPA
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud,
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological
manipulation. While much attention has focused on
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a
showing that the victim was moved.

-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin,
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of
three tiers. Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking"
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1. Countries
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards,
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum
standards are classified as Tier 2. Countries assessed as
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3.

-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year.
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of
each year. Countries are included on the "Special Watch
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List.

-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined:
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim
population. As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier

3. Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report). The new law allows for a waiver
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a
determination by the President that the country has developed
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the
minimum standards.

-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for
participation by government officials or employees in
educational and cultural exchange programs. In addition,
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian,
trade-related or certain types of development assistance)
with respect to countries on Tier 3. Countries classified as
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier
classification, would avoid such sanctions. Guidelines for
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared
by Posts with host governments.

-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon: fraudulent
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor. As the
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion. The
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated
"cost of coercion."

-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on
website www.state.gov/g/tip.

-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State
Department. We are providing you an advance copy of your
country's narrative in that report. Please keep this
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June

16. The State Department will also hold a general briefing
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June
17 at 3:30 pm EDT.

(end non-paper)


10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as
possible after the TIP Report is released. Funding for
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human
Rights Report. Posts needing financial assistance for
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX
office.


11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use
with local media.

Q1: Why has Ghana been downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List?

A: The Government of Ghana does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite
limited resources. During the year, Ghanaian police
intercepted a greater number of trafficking victims than the
prior year. Despite these efforts, the government
demonstrated weak efforts in prosecuting and punishing
trafficking offenders or ensuring that victims receive
adequate care; therefore, Ghana is placed on Tier 2 Watch
List.


Q2: What progress has Ghana made in the last year?

A: The government reported arresting 16 suspected
traffickers during the year, five of whom were prosecuted.
In March 2009, the government convicted a woman for
trafficking a Togolese girl for forced labor and imposed a
sentence of eight years, imprisonment. The Department of
Social Welfare (DSW) provided rehabilitation assistance to
child victims rescued by the IOM from forced labor in the
fishing industry. DSW staff provided rehabilitation
assistance to victims in their communities of origin as well
once the children are reunited with their families. The
government continued to lack shelters for sex trafficking
victims. Police rescued 221 child labor trafficking victims,
and seven adult Chinese women forced into prostitution.
During the year, the government conducted anti-trafficking
information and education campaigns. In June 2008, in
collaboration with private cocoa companies, the government
released a report on the incidence of child labor in its
cocoa sector.

Q3: What can Ghana do to further the fight against
trafficking in persons?

A: Increase efforts to prosecute and convict trafficking
offenders, including those who subject children to forced
labor in the Lake Volta fishing industry and those who force
Ghanaian children and foreign women into prostitution;
establish additional victim shelters, particularly for sex
trafficking victims; continue to apply Trafficking Victim
Fund monies to victim care, and train officials to identify
trafficking victims among women in prostitution and to
respect victims, rights.



12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the
preceding action requests.
CLINTON