611 human trafficking victims rescued

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has since 2019 rescued, supported and given care to over 611 victims of human trafficking, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cynthia Mamle Morrison has disclosed.

Out of this number, she said 200 were children and 411 were all adults.

Speaking at this week’s Meet-the-Press engagement in Accra on Wednesday, Ms Morrison said Ghana was currently on a Tier-2 ranking with the US Department of Labour (DOL) tier ranking. She said this showsed that Ghana was making a significant effort to fight human trafficking.

“Government has released GHc1 million into the Human Trafficking Fund to effectively combat the menace with the operationalisation of two government shelters to give care to rescued victims of Human Trafficking.”

According to the minister, the ministry had so far trained 45 law enforcement officers to build their capacity to fight against human trafficking in Ghana.

On the issue of public education, the minister said her outfit undertook series of community dialogues and sensitisations in efforts to increase awareness and education on human trafficking and irregular migration issues. She said this ultimately improved in reducing the rate of human trafficking and its related activities in the country.

“As part of the Blue Day, the ministry she said embarked on a Social Media Awareness raising campaign on human trafficking where Ghana joined the world to commemorate this year’s World Day against Trafficking in Persons (Blue Day). This was to intensify our prevention mechanisms through awareness raising campaigns.”

According to her, the ministry had organised a durbars for 75 traditional leaders from all the regions of Ghana to sensitise them on the dangers associated with human trafficking.

BY TIMES REPORTER