How a mother of 2 was wrongly jailed for child trafficking for 5 years

Mawusi Amlade is a regular mother who looked out for her children the best ways she could until a 2019 operation by a leading international anti-trafficking organisation rudely separated her from her children.

When this happened and the case went to court, Mawusi was slapped with a 5 years sentence, making it an even difficulty situation for her because when she was behind bars, all she could think about were her children.

The charge she was found guilty of was child trafficking, occasioned after that operation by the International Justice Mission (IJM).

But after two years of stay in prison, Mawusi gained her freedom from the effortless work of another another US NGO, the Sudreau Global Justice Institute - a partner of IJM, quashing her sentence.

These details came to the fore when a BBC Africa Eye investigation found that the activities of IJM in parts of Ghana had, in a number of cases, led to the wrongful conclusions that some families were involved in child trafficking.

The title of the BBC Africa Eye investigations was “The Night They Came for Our Children.”

"I had no idea where my children had been taken, I kept thinking about them, more than anything else," Mawusi told Africa Eye when the team spoke with her.

The report added that during the appeal process that saw to this mother of 2 being released, her case was advertised in a fundraising campaign as a miscarriage of justice.

Sudreau, the report also added, said in later deleted Instagram post that Mawusi Amlade was a "mother of two falsely convicted of a serious crime."

But that has not been all: Amlade is yet to be reunited with her children, four years on.

The case of 11-year-old Fatima:

In September 2022, IJM led a night operation in Northern Ghana, a community called Mogyigna, where four children were pulled out of bed.

Two of the children’s uncles were also taking by gun-touting police officers while the children’s grandmother was left with questions without answers.

Describing the aggressive operation in Mogyigna as fuelled by “target-driven culture inside IJM” BBC’s investigation found two documented cases of rescue operations in which children were forcibly, traumatically and unjustly removed and the children's relatives prosecuted as child traffickers including the case of 11-year-old Fatima.

Through their investigation into concerns about the modus of IJM in Ghana, a BBC undercover journalist was placed on the staff of the NGO.

With access to the organisations staff WhatsApp platform and social services documents, the investigation unearthed evidence that showed that while IJM informed the police and social services that the children from Mogyigna were victims of trafficking, a different conclusion had been drawn within the charity.

A legal officer with the organisation in an internal message noted that there were “no elements of trafficking” in the case of Fatima and two of the four children taken from Mogyigna.

The officer noted that only one of the four cases, Fatima's cousin Mohammed, included elements of trafficking. That however was also challenged by the family.

Despite the legal officer’s advice, the organisation concluded that all four children, aged between five and 11, were at risk of being used for child labour and thus proceeded.

For four months the children were separated from their family. An investigation by Ghanaian social services concluded the children had not been trafficked and eventually led to them being reunited with their families.



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