Number of victims of human trafficking is increasing – Report

Ghana does not fully meet minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking

Of the 944 human trafficking victims identified and reported by the government last year, 821 were trafficked for labour, while the rest were trafficked for sexual exploitation, according to the 2023 Ghana Trafficking in Persons Report.

While the government has stepped up victim protection efforts, the report says, the numbers are still higher than in 2022, when the number of identified and referred victims was 574.

The majority of identified victims – 505 – were children, and most of the identified victims, 616, were Ghanaians.

Of the 123 foreign victims, most were Nigerians. The remaining victims came from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Vietnam.

According to the report, the US State Department indicates that Ghana does not fully meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, but that it is making significant efforts to do so.

The ministry recommends that the country continue to step up efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected traffickers, including complicit officials and fraudulent labor recruiters, and seek appropriate sentences for convicted traffickers, which should include significant prison sentences.

According to the US State Department, Ghana remained at Level 2 of the ranking because the government has generally made greater efforts than in the previous reporting period.

These efforts include increasing investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking, and identifying and referring more trafficking victims to services. The government provided trauma-informed training for judicial and law enforcement officials, and increased coordination with civil society on protection and prevention efforts.

The ministry also indicated that despite progress, the government is falling short of minimum standards in several key areas.

For example, in 2017 the government maintained a ban on labor migration to Gulf states, increasing vulnerability to human trafficking.

Despite reports of fraudulent recruiters exploiting Ghanaian victims abroad, the government has failed to hold any fraudulent recruiters accountable.

“The government failed to adequately address complicity in human trafficking crimes and did not amend the anti-trafficking law regulations to remove the option of a fine instead of imprisonment in cases where the trafficker was a parent or guardian of a child victim,” the report said.

According to the report, efforts to screen vulnerable populations for indicators of human trafficking – such as migrant workers, asylum seekers and workers on national fishing vessels of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – remain inadequate.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that over the past five years, traffickers have exploited domestic and foreign victims in Ghana, while traffickers have exploited victims from Ghana abroad.

Traffickers exploit Ghanaian children by forcing them into forced labour in inland and coastal fishing, domestic services, street trading, begging, transportation, artisanal gold mining, quarrying, livestock farming and agriculture.