VZCZCXRO5070
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAR #1836/01 2211124
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091124Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY ACCRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2081
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0302
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ACCRA 001836 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: GH KOCI KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: COMBATING CHILD TRAFFICKING IN GHANA: THE YEJI 
PROJECT 
 
¶1.  Summary:  A February 2006 trip by Pol FSN and 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) staff revealed 
that IOM's project to combat child trafficking in central 
Ghana, funded by the PRM Bureau, has had some successes. 
However, the project has also highlighted many challenges in 
combating trafficking in Ghana, including the need for 
greater sensitization and awareness, economic factors, weak 
law enforcement, and the difficulty of reintegrating rescued 
children.  The Inspector General of Police told PolChief that 
enforcing Ghana's 2005 Trafficking in Persons law is 
difficult because parliament is ahead of the general 
population on the issue.  Minister of Women and Children's 
Affairs Mahama told the Ambassador that Ghana plans to do 
more sensitization before moving forward on prosecutions. End 
Summary. 
 
THE YEJI TRAFFICKED CHILDREN PROJECT 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. The Yeji Trafficked Children Project, run by the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM), was launched 
in December 2002 with funding from the Department of State's 
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.  It is 
targeted at an estimated 600 fishermen and 1,000 trafficked 
children in eleven fishing villages around the village of 
Yeji in Ghana's Brong-Ahafo Region.  Since 2002, some 576 
children have been rescued and re-integrated with their 
families in the Volta and Central Regions, while fishermen 
have been supported in adapting to alternative forms of 
income generation. 
 
¶3. Friends of Human Development (FHD), a Ghanaian NGO that 
works in partnership with IOM, regularly meets with community 
heads and opinion leaders to educate them on the dangers of 
trafficking and the penalties imposed by Ghana's trafficking 
in persons law, enacted in December 2005.  The group's aim is 
to convince "masters" to voluntarily give up trafficked 
children and accept training in other economic activities 
such as cattle rearing, cereal farming and micro-credit 
schemes allowing spouses to trade in non-fish products. 
 
¶4. In February 2006, Political FSN traveled to Yeji with 
representatives of IOM to observe IOM efforts to rescue some 
fifty trafficked children.  IOM successfully rescued thirteen 
of over fifty trafficked children who were screened.  During 
a return trip in March, IOM officers rescued an additional 26 
children.  Several hundred trafficked children are still 
believed to be in communities dotting Lake Volta, an area 
that has become one of the most significant destinations in 
Ghana for internally trafficked persons. 
 
OBSTACLES TO RESCUING TRAFFICKING VICTIMS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. Although Ghana's trafficking in persons (TIP) law is 
relatively new, several community leaders and elders in the 
Yeji area told Pol FSN and IOM officials that they are 
committed to eliminating trafficking.  In the village of 
Adakrom, for example, the commitment of the chief and his 
elders ensured that thirteen out of 35 trafficked children 
screened several weeks earlier were rescued.  While there is 
evidence that awareness of the new TIP law is growing in this 
and other communities, many challenges remain in securing 
community cooperation in combating trafficking.  These 
include: 
 
-- POOR AWARENESS: While fishermen in many remote localities 
appear genuinely ignorant of the TIP law, Pol FSN found that 
others simply ignore the law and the dangers associated with 
using trafficked children. 
 
-- ECONOMIC FACTORS: Many fishermen told Pol FSN their 
priority is getting a return on the huge investments they 
have made in procuring the trafficked children.  The 
fishermen rely heavily on these children to sustain their 
businesses and are discouraged by IOM's decision to reduce 
compensation to masters (in the form of micro-credit support 
for income substitution) from 1.2 million cedis (USD 132) to 
500,000 cedis per year (USD 55).  In the village of Dasikope, 
where ten trafficked children were screened by Friends of 
Human Development and IOM for possible rescue, many of the 
masters appeared visibly old and weak.  Although they had 
agreed to participate in the rescue project, they ultimately 
backed out because they feared their fishing operations would 
not survive without the children. 
 
-- MISINFORMATION: Agents of some masters peddle lies that 
rescued children are rented out to rich people in the cities 
for huge profits.  These allegations generate cynicism and 
 
ACCRA 00001836  002 OF 003 
 
 
sometimes open hostility between NGOs and fishing communities. 
 
-- WEAK LAW ENFORCEMENT: Local police and social welfare 
officials complained to Pol FSN and IOM officials about a 
lack of resources to implement the TIP law.  Many local 
anti-trafficking committees, set up by communities to act as 
watchdogs, also complained about resource constraints.  In 
many of these fishing communities, there are no police 
stations.  Where stations do exist, the officers are often 
ignorant of the new trafficking law.  In some cases, police 
and community leaders simply ignore NGO education and 
sensitization efforts due to strong cultural norms that 
condone trafficking. 
 
THE DIFFICULTY OF REINTEGRATION 
------------------------------- 
 
¶6. Community leaders and NGOs seemed to enjoy some 
cooperation and mutual goodwill in both source and 
destination communities.  Sensitization programs have made an 
impact in both areas, and NGOs have worked hard to counsel 
victims and facilitate their return. 
 
¶7. Nonetheless, there is insufficient attention to 
rehabilitating these traumatized children.  Many have missed 
out on school, have lost their childhood and sometimes have 
to return to a class in school where they are much older than 
their peers.  According to FHD, because of adjustment 
problems these children sometimes want to go back to their 
lives as trafficking victims.  Some of the parents reject 
their children for fear of being asked to refund money they 
received from traffickers. 
 
GOG ATTENTION TO TRAFFICKING 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8. PolChief recently raised concerns about trafficking in 
Yeji with Inspector General of Police Patrick Acheampong and 
other senior police officials.  The IGP responded that it was 
difficult to implement the TIP law and that parliament was 
ahead of the general population.  There is a need for 
significant education about TIP, he said, adding that in the 
Yeji area, a large majority of the local population does not 
view trafficking as an offense.  They believe relatives send 
their children to work in fishing villages because of poverty 
and that many of these children have more prospects than they 
would in their villages, he said. 
 
¶9. In a July 17 meeting with Minister of Women and Children's 
Affairs Hajia Alima Mahama, the Ambassador said that while 
passage of the TIP law was important, the GOG must make 
progress on enforcement.  She said this was the main reason 
Ghana remained a Tier 2 ranked country in 2006.  Prosecuting 
known traffickers in Yeji would send a very positive signal 
about GOG seriousness on this issue, she added.  Mahama said 
the GOG was unhappy about its Tier 2 ranking, but had decided 
to do more sensitization work before moving to prosecutions. 
Mahama conceded that resource constraints are not a viable 
explanation for why police are not making arrests, but argued 
that the law may need to be broken down into individual 
regulations to facilitate arrests and prosecutions. 
Attempting to demonstrate GOG commitment to the issue, Mahama 
noted that she chaired a recent ECOWAS workshop in Nigeria on 
trafficking and that her ministry actively participated in an 
International Labor Organization workshop to develop an 
action plan to combat trafficking. 
 
¶10. Asked by the Ambassador about the status of setting up a 
Child Trafficking Board, as stipulated in Ghana's TIP law, 
Mahama said the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs 
(MOWAC) has put together the membership, has identified a 
coordinator, and is discussing a date for inaugurating the 
Board.  Mahama expects President Kufuor will approve the 
inauguration date soon, after which time the Board will be 
able to launch a Human Trafficking Fund. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11. Despite our efforts to encourage prosecutions, GOG 
officials clearly see awareness building as a bigger 
priority.  The Chief Director of MOWAC reinforced this point 
in an Embassy Human Rights Roundtable on August 3, arguing 
that the GOG needs another year of awareness building before 
it makes sense to push for prosecutions.  Some NGO contacts 
agree with this view, including the head of 
counter-trafficking programs for IOM/Ghana.  They are 
concerned that premature efforts to arrest and prosecute 
traffickers in Yeji may alienate the local community and 
reduce cooperation for their rescue efforts. 
 
ACCRA 00001836  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶12.  We will continue to press for arrests and prosecutions, 
in addition to encouraging awareness building, in what we 
believe needs to be a multi-dimensional approach to combating 
TIP in Ghana.  Communities need greater sensitization; 
district assemblies need to devote more resources to support 
civil society on anti-TIP activities; the police need more 
training and awareness building; the media could do more to 
highlight the progress of rescued children; rescued children 
who do well should be assisted and held up as role models in 
their source and destination communities; economic support is 
needed for the parents of trafficked children to prevent 
recurrence.  End Comment. 
BRIDGEWATER