According to the Ghanaian government, more than 90% of suspected human traffickers detained in Ghana and 95% of survivors rescued and placed in public shelters are Nigerians.
This information was provided by the Ghana Police Service and the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection during a five-day advanced training on reporting human trafficking that Expertise France, a non-governmental organisation, organised in Accra.
20 journalists participated in the training, 10 from each Nigeria and Ghana, to provide them with the knowledge and skills necessary to write better human trafficking articles that accurately depict the situation in the Gulf of Guinea region and have the potential to effect change.
Deputy Director, Human Trafficking unit of the Ministry, Mrs Sena Owusu-Gibson, said there was a need for journalists in the region to amplify, help identify and re-integrate survivors of human trafficking.
Owusu-Gibson urged journalists to avoid re-victimisation of trafficking survivors, adding that their identities and photographs should not be exposed to avoid stigmatisation.
She lamented that human trafficking has remained a menace in Africa, despite global efforts to root it out, commending the organisers for the initiative which would inspire participants to put forward reports that would bring about change.
Also, the Director, Anti-Human Trafficking department of Ghana Police, CSP Mike Baah, said over 90% of suspected traffickers arrested in the country were Nigerians, noting that the kingpins bring in their victims and force them into prostitution and other forms of indecent and exploitative jobs.
He narrated a case of a 16-year-old girl forced to sleep with an average of 13 men daily, who later got pregnant and was forced to have an abortion that eventually left her with complications.
Baah acknowledged the efforts of the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana as well as the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in combating the scourge, adding that his department has contacted them on several occasions to help in cracking some cases.
Training facilitator, Charles Autheman, emphasised the need for regional journalists to spotlight human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour which usually benefits multinational firms.
He noted that companies who rely on fish, cocoa, coffee, cotton, gold, lithium and other natural resources for their products inadvertently encourage human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour and must begin to interrogate their suppliers to ensure their actions are not at variance with labour laws and protocols.
NAPTIP’s Press Officer, Vincent Adekoye, urged journalists to collaborate more across borders on reporting human trafficking so that the African continent would show more commitment towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eliminating all forms of indecent work, child and forced labour by 2030.