Slavery on Volta Lake, a silent nightmare of the Ghanaian child

Trafficking in humans is an international problem affecting millions of people and many countries around the world.

Internal trafficking of children in Ghana is one of the biggest developmental challenges’ successive governments and their development partners are struggling to overcome.

Some children are trafficked from their home villages to work in the fishing industry for long hours, and the irony of it all is that they are denied basic education, lived in meagre conditions to the detriment of their health and wellbeing.

Trafficked children in Ghana are always exploited by fishermen, desperately to feed their families and make life comfortable for them, along the banks of the Volta Lake.

Scenario

Fishing was his hobby when Koomson (not his real name) was staying with his Uncle at Jatapko, a fishing community along the Volta Lake in the Pru East District of the Bono East Region in the 90s.

He was then nine years old, when he accompanied his Uncle, a basic school teacher transferred from Accra to stay in and serve the community, after he learnt Jatakpo was a predominantly fishing community.

His Uncle knew leaving Accra to stay with him at Jatakpo would definitely affect his education and ruin his future, but nothing could stop Koomson who had then lost both parents in a fatal accident from following his Uncle to the village.

Koomson’s new life at the Jatakpo community seemed interesting when he sought permission from his Uncle, who always allowed him to join some young people in the village to go fishing along shores of Volta Lake.

Within a few weeks of stay, he has learned a lot and got himself abreast with the various techniques involved in catching fish – hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

As he grew in strength and stature, Koomson never knew he was the ‘eye’ of a group of fishermen who had planned to traffic him to another far-reaching fishing community for an exploitative work.

With the help of his trusted Uncle, who had already negotiated with the traffickers for a fee, the traffickers succeeded in trafficking Koomson to Atrapa, a commercial fishing community along the Volta Lake and that was where his ordeal began.

His Ordeal

Narrating his ordeal to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Koomson, 31, and a renowned fisherman in the area said he had been fishing on Volta Lake for the past 17 years.

He said since he stayed with is supposed ‘master’ whom the traffickers sold to he denied him formal education and subjected him to worst forms of labour and torture.

“My master and his wife always woke me up at dawn to follow him to the Volta Lake. We fish on the lake and return around 1100 hours every day. The day I will tell them I am tired, my master subjects me to severe beatings and denies me food,” he flimsy added flimsy in a voice.

He said the workload was burdensome as he was regarded as a slave staying with his master saying “going for fishing and doing house chores were too much to bear”.

The ordeal he went through, Koomson said has left indelible scars in is memory, that he could not use words alone to describe.

Frameworks, laws and Conventions

The legal framework on trafficking in Ghana was strengthened in December 2005, when the Government passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking bill, with assistance from a variety of international organizations.

In 2015 the United States government and the government of Ghana signed a five-year Child Protection Compact (CPC) to contribute to Ghana’s efforts to end child trafficking.

The Compact, among other interventions, being implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General, Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations aims at improving Ghana’s ranking of Traffic In Persons (TIP) Report.

Also, enforcement of Ghana’s Children Act 1998 (Act 560) has failed in tackling child trafficking in the country.

The Act aims at reforming and consolidating laws relating to children, to provide for the rights of the child, protection, maintenance and adoption, regulate child labour and apprenticeship for ancillary matters concerning children generally and to provide for related matters.

Ghana is a signatory to the Palermo Protocol (2000) seeks to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 that defines Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL) and tasks ratified countries to establish mechanisms to prevent and protect children from WFCL.

In fact, Ghana was the first African country to ratify ILO convention on the rights of a child.

The human trafficking Act 2005 (Act 694) also provides for the prevention, reduction and punishment for human trafficking, for the rehabilitation and re-integration of victims of trafficking and related issues.

Lastly, enforcement of the Domestic violence Act 2007 (Act 732), that seeks to provide protection from violence particularly for women and children and connected purposes has also not helped in the fight against child trafficking.

The Act stipulates “Any person who engages in domestic violence commits an offence and is liable to a summary conviction of 500 penalty units or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or both” but in the midst of these Acts and protocols, the country had done less to arrest the issues of child trafficking.

In August 2019, The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons of the US Department granted an extension of CPC Agreement to the Free the Slaves (FTS), a Non-governmental organisation to continue implementing the Compact in Eastern, Bono East, Oti, Volta, Central and Greater Accra Regions for the next two years.

FTS in an international is an International NGO, headquartered in Washington DC, United States, which works to combating child trafficking and modern slavery across the globe.

Growing Up Free (GUF) Project- Combating Child trafficking in Ghana

Thanks to the intervention of the FTS for selecting MIHOSO International Foundation, a local NGO to implement the GUF project in eight communities along the Volta Lake in the Pru and Sene East Districts of the Bono East Region.

MIHOSO works to provide public health education, social and organizational development interventions to communities.

The NGO does this through evidence-based research, advocacy, capacity building and training, sharing of resources, and provision of livelihood empowerment programmes to target women, Youth and children in Ghana, especially in marginalized and deprived areas to spur local economic development.

GUF, a 20-month project aimed enhancing collective efforts to combat child trafficking in the eight traffic-prone fishing communities – Laasaka Akuraa, Fante-Akuraa, Jatappo and Kobre Nsuoano number one and number two in the Pru East District, and Datetoklo, Deifour, Ningo and Atrapa in the Sene East District.

In an interview, Mr. Thomas Benarkuu, the Project Coordinator, explained that the project further seeks to empower families of children rescued so that they would be able to provide for the basic needs of their children, including shelter, food, healthcare, and education.

He reminded communities that child trafficking was a serious offence under the Human Trafficking Act 205 (Act 694) punishable by law and advised people in the fishing communities to volunteer information, so that perpetrators of the crime would be arrested and prosecuted.

This will also go a long way to help achieve desirable successes under the project, he said.

Successes

Within one month, Mr Bernarkuu explained the GUF Project has rescued 12 children trafficked for fishing on the Volta lake, and the victims have since been sent to rehabilitation centres.

Mostly, victims are boys between eight and 14 years, and they were rescued from Yeji township, while few others were picked from other project implementing communities.

“All these cases are voluntary rescue and we would want to edge the general public to report any form of child trafficking to the Department of Social Welfare or the Ghana police service”.

That notwithstanding, Mr Benarkuu regretted child trafficking was recording disturbing figures particularly at Datetoklo, Deifour, Ningo and Atrapa, and he called for concerted and decisive approach to tackle it before the menace was out of control.

Way forward

Mr. Fautinus Obrotey, the Pru East District Director of the Department of Social Welfare, expressed regret that despite intensified public education, cases of child trafficking were recording disturbing figures in the fishing communities.

He said more than 200 children had been rescued from the Volta Lake in the past two years, and commended MIHOSO International and other human right civil society organisations working in the area for their support.

Mr Obrotey mentioned poverty and large families as major causes of child trafficking in the area, but regretted that because communities were failing to volunteer information, it was making it extremely difficult to fight the menace.

Child trafficking and exploitation is deep-rooted in the fishing industry in Ghana and the driving forces that extend beyond fish scarcity.

Ingrained traditions can help explain the prevalence of this crime because most traffickers did not realize it is wrong for children to be exploited and denied formal education.

Until successive governments demonstrated serious political will and collaborated effectively with CSOs, as well as put in place and implemented realistic policies and programmes, child trafficking in fishing communities would continue to become “a silent nightmare” for unsuspecting children and ruin their futures.