VZCZCXRO6777
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAR #1327/01 3491653
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151653Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY ACCRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8666
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

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