A total of eight girls, who were trafficked into Ghana to engage in commercial sex have been rescued, and seven of them were repatriated to Nigeria.
The Ghana Police Service and the Cape Coast office of the Social Welfare Department carried out the reparation through the International Organisation for Migration after identifying the families of the victims in Nigeria.
The young girls, aged between 15 and 22, were trafficked into Ghana under the pretext of securing them white collar jobs to enable them to improve their standard of living.
Two of the girls were rescued at Diaso, the Upper Denkyira West District capital, three at Mankessim in the Mfantseman Municipality, and three at Assin Awisen in the Assin South Municipality of the Central Region.
However, a 22-year-old woman among them was later freed by the Department, when the caretaker of the Social Welfare Shelter reported that she was causing problems at the facility.
Mr Alexander Ofosu Yeboah, the Unit Head in-charge of the Children Residential Home of the Department, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said human trafficking cases were mostly high during vacations.
He said the perpetrators deceived the victims, who were secondary school girls, of providing them basic needs and giving them jobs that could change their lives and make them comfortable.
Mr Yeboah said the reparation became possible following the gathering of intelligence and report made by the victims on their plight, after realising they had been deceived.
He said the Department provided shelter for the victims throughout their stay in Ghana until they were identified and sent back to their country.
“The perpetrators, all Nigerians, are on the run except one female, who was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment in hard labour,” according to Mr Yeboah.
He said the menace was rife in mining, farming, and fishing areas of the region, where some trafficked girls engaged in sexual activities for their masters.
Mr Yeboah reminded the public that human trafficking was inhuman and negatively affected the future of victims, and needed collective efforts to stop or reduce it.
“Laws governing human trafficking must be strictly enforced to scare perpetrators from involving in the act,” he noted.
On challenges confronting the Department, Mr Yeboah said perpetrators of human trafficking were mostly freed or released due to the 48- hour limitation of keeping offenders in police cells.
He said since most of the perpetrators were foreigners, granting bail was not guaranteed because they had no relatives or family members in the country to stand in for them.
Mr Yeboah, therefore, appealed to the Government to either extend the 48 hours limitation for trafficking perpetrators or enact a law to process them for court right after arrest. —GNA
