About ten Minors have been rescued from alleged traffickers by the Yendi Sector Command Of the Ghana Immigration Service.
This rescue mission was achieved after officers at the Sabare Inland check point intercepted a white Toyota with 4 transporters and 10 children as occupants on the 16th of January 2024
The underaged victims of school going ages ranging from 10 – 15 years, were all from Sangbaa, a farming community in the Tatale district of the Northern region of Ghana.
A statement issued by the Sector Commander, Chief Superintendent William Morwu Korley, said the ten children were suspected to have been trafficked for child labour in the southern part of the country.
An interrogation carried out by officers on the suspects, revealed that, the children were being taking to Abofo in Kumasi to work on an afforestation project which will last for 11 months.
When the owner of the said farm was contacted, he, Kwame Doudo Bonsu who said he’s a legal practitioner, said he and his farm manager did not know that the workers being brought to them were underaged, adding that they wanted an energetic adults workers.
According to some of the victims, they are into apprenticeship programs and needed money to prepare for their graduations, hence, the decision to embark on such a journey .
Currently, the 10 underaged victims comprised of 4 girls who would have been made to cook and 6 boys have been handed over to the social welfare department.
However, the four alleged traffickers; Gnankoba Yibolikpene 24 years, Atta Abdul Rahman 24 years, Belandote Joseph 25 years and Bijomiba Ali 27 are undergoing some interrogations for further action at the Yendi Sector Command Headquarters.
According to the 2023 Trafficking In Persons Report by the U.S.A department of States indicates that, children from the Northern part of Ghana are sent to the southern part of the country by their parents to work in farms during dry seasons. The report also revealed how young people mostly girls, are recruited from communities for domestic duties in the lake Volta region, sometimes with the knowledge of their parents. Children have been exposed to numerous kinds of trafficking such as begging, quarrying, streets hawking and sex.
On the same day, the National Intelligence Bureau also arrested eight (8) Nigerian Nationals found loitering around aimlessly and handed them to the Yendi Sector Command of the GIS for further investigations and possible repatriation.
The Yendi Sector Command of the Ghana Immigration Service is therefore urging the general public especially residents of the area to always look out and report any suspected child trafficking activity for swift actions to be taken.
By: Alhassan D Baba | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
