The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has reunited 89 trafficked children with their parents at Immuna, a fishing community in the Central Region. The children were ?sold into slavery? by their parents to work with fishermen at Yeji.

The IOM is campaigning for an end to child trafficking in various communities in the Central and Volta regions. It provided counseling services for the children ? most of whom were sexually and physically abused by their slave masters. The children were also supplied with textbooks and other materials to enable them continue with their education. The parents have been given soft-loans to engage in income-generating ventures so that they will be able to take care of their children.

At the ceremony to reunite the children and their parents, various speakers advised parents in the community to stop trafficking their children, warning that they risk imprisonment if they continue with the practice.

PICTURES: Coleen Ross, Journalists for Human Rights