Accra — Ghanaians travelling abroad through agents have been advised to be very tactful else they may end up losing their kidneys to human traffickers.

The Head of the Human Traffic Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent Patience Quaye, who gave the warning at a human trafficking forum at Maamobi, Accra last week, explained that apart from being members of human trafficking gangs, some of the culprits are only after the kidneys of their victims.

According to her, upon arrival at the promised destinations, the culprits under the guise of conducting medical examinations on their victims before putting them into jobs remove their kidneys through crude operations. The operation is normally done without the knowledge of the victims under anesthesia and victims are only informed of the operation by the 'Thank you for donating your kidney' note left for them after the operation by the traffickers. The fortunate ones are left with money whilst the others are left to their fate.

The forum organised by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), a human rights non -governmental organization in collaboration with the Federation of Youth Clubs, brought together chiefs, guardians and youths from Nima and Maamobi. It forms part of the community meetings being undertaken by LRC to educate people, especially the poor on their rights

Ms Quaye said the traffickers are adopting various methods to outwit their victims promising them all kinds of jobs including football careers, lucrative jobs, beauty pageants and marriages abroad, but often their real intention is to recruit them for international gangs.

To curb the menace, Supt. Quaye called on the public to report to the Police or their community leaders anybody suspected of engaging in human trafficking.

She said recent reported cases of human trafficking in the northern parts of the country should alert community leaders on the need to protect people in their communities from human traffickers.

"Human trafficking has no age limits or educational background, anybody is at risk," she warned.

The Police Officer advocated the establishment of anti human trafficking clubs in every community to help raise awareness on the menace, and also warned parents who give out their children with the aim of making money, she warned that, "when such parents are apprehended by the Police they will be charged for conniving with human traffickers to human trafficking."

Chief Baba Isah of the Muslim Family Counseling Centre, who chaired the programme, advised the youth not to be desperate to travel outside in search of jobs. Such an attitude, he said, protect them from falling into the hands of human traffickers and other criminal gang. He also called on the Muslim youth to be on the watch for these human traffickers.

Some of the participants said they found the forum highly educative, revealing and instructive because hitherto they had a faint idea of human trafficking, but with the forum they are now well placed to identify human traffickers.