Traffickers use Togo border, Air Ethiopia to traffic girls out of Ghana - Migrants Watch

Executive Director of Migrants Watch, Ato Amoah, has stated that Ghanaian traffickers are using the Togo border and consequently Air Ethiopia to smuggle young women out of the country on the blind side of the state institutions mandated to check such activities.

He said this in an interview with Emmanuel Samani on Mid Day news on TV3, Tuesday, May 11.

Mr Amoah was speaking on the back of efforts by his outfit to bring stranded Ghanaian greener pasture seekers back from countries like Baghdad and the United Arab Emirates who are suffering from human right abuses in such countries.

He said “the campaign has been very intense now but the recruiters have also devised means to outwit the system, since the imposition of the Visa 20 regime to as it were to curb the outflux of Ghanaians going outside, I can tell you for a fact and on authority that Ghanaian traffickers using the Togo border and further continue with Air Ethiopia to convey Ghanaian migrants at the blind side of the state institutions.

“So I think the civilian aspect and the legal regime by way of prosecution should be enhanced and further advocacy should also be looked at how best it should be enhanced because we can’t put a stop to the advocacy bit of the whole thing”.

When asked how he reintegrate the girls back into the Ghanaian society considering the traumatic experiences they have encountered, he said “yes we are fortunate to have been considered for some grant funding from the West African branch of the Open Society Foundation, USA, situated in Senegal. We wrote to them for assistance for this reintegration and they responded positively to our request. Secondly, they funded us to take care of the 75 girls that were rescued, we have been able to do the media launching on the 19 April and we just brought to a closure a successful training program for them at Shai Hills yesterday.

“After four days intensive training, whereupon products that seek to complement the fight against malaria were produced with FDA backing. We will entreat the corporate world to, as it were to complement some of these interventions coming from without to see how best we can give our girls dignified living”.