Media urged to sensitize people on child trafficking

Accra, Sept. 22. GNA - Mrs Elizabeth Hagan, Assistant Chief Labour Officer of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment (MMYE), on Thursday urged the media to increase the sensitization of the public on the need to combat child trafficking.

She said: "Child trafficking is a worst form of crime and there is the need for the media and the people to report traffickers to the appropriate agencies to deal with them."

Mrs Hagan was speaking at a two-day capacity building workshop on human trafficking for media personnel organized by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC).

She said: "For every trafficked child and child labour situation, there is the neglect of an irresponsible parenting."

In addition to that the formal social family system is broken down to the extent that family members do not regard each other as a relative leading to waywardness of children.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) convention 138, the Children's Act 560 clearly prohibits Human Trafficking and Child Labour.

Mrs Hagan said the estimated population of children between 5 years and 17 years in Ghana was 6,361,110 out of which 2,474,545 representing 39 per cent were engaged in economic activities while 242,074 are engaged in hazardous child labour.

Mrs Sylvia Hinson-Ekong, Executive Director of Rescue Foundation Ghana, said sensitization would stimulate people about the need to combat child trafficking.

She said civil society groups; agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and institutional bodies had a greater role to play and urged the media not to relent in it efforts on reporting on human trafficking issues.

Mrs Hinson-Ekong said; "the control of the civil society sometimes by Government is not good for our country's development".

Mr Eric Boakye Peasah, Counter Trafficking Field Manager of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the IOM was working in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to help rescued victims to overcome the trauma they went through.