Ghana risks losing about US$650million in aid from the United States government if the required interventions are not put in place to curb human trafficking in the country, Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery has revealed.
Under the 2014/15 Trafficking in Persons(TIP) report issued by the United States Department of State, Ghana remains a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children who are subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.
“They have done so and first classified us as Tier 2 and now Tier 2 Watch list for 2014 and 2015. The rules are that, if we are classified for a third year as Tier 2, we will lose US$650m dollars in aid from the US government. That’s the sanction.”
This is largely because, by the report, Ghana has “no demonstrable increase in prosecution efforts or assistance to victims; zero trafficking convictions in 2015; a decrease in the number of victims identified in the past year; inadequate funding and training for law enforcement and prosecutors.”
Other challenges the report noted include: insufficiently stringent penalties for trafficking, reports of increased of corruption and bribery in the judicial system which hindered anti-trafficking measures.
Mr. Dery, explained that assessment for 2016 is still under consideration. “We have sought to clearly show to the Americans that in this short time, we have been able to get some results.”
Some of the interventions the country has put in place to forestall human trafficking, according to the Minister, is the conviction of two people in January for human trafficking; rescuing of 24 trafficked children from the Volta Region; freeing of 11 people ready to be sent to Saudi Arabia by the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service; and the allocation of vehicles to the human trafficking unit to aid their work.
Government has also undertaken to jointly renovate the shelter for victims situated at Madina, a suburb of Accra.
The Interior Minister also stressed that there is a fund which has been set aside for human trafficking under the Gender Ministry, which the Finance Minister is committed to allocating resources to when he reads the budget on Thursday.
“It is not just a matter of trying to save money, in form of the US aid that we may lose, but as a matter of concern that the human rights of our children and other persons who are trafficked out are protected. The President is committed to the protection of human rights and that is why we are doing what we are doing now to get out of the Tier 2 Watch List. Want to improve our record to make sure that we are not classified as such,” he said.
Mr. Dery said these are the measures put in place to convince the Americans that “we were not in control before January 6, 2017, but now we are in control.”