Togolese man from Ghana arrested for sex trafficking teenage girls in US
A man believed to be a Togolese refugee from Ghana has been arrested in El Paso, Texas in the United States for trafficking girls for sex.
A report by the Associated Press says Edema Missiadan, 18 years old, was arrested on suspicion of prostituting two 15-year-old girls on a classified website. The report says he brought the gilrs from Phoenix, but didn’t say if they were Ghanaians or Togolese.
According to the report he was arrested after an investigator responding to online ads, set up a meeting at an El Paso motel last Wednesday evening.
Missiadan, who the report cites officials saying is a refugee from Ghana believed to be a Togolese has been jailed without bond on a sex trafficking charge.
It is significant that July 30 every year is marked as World Day Against Human Trafficking.
The crime of human trafficking, which is the recruitment and/or movement of someone within or across borders, through the abuse of power/position with the intention of forced exploitation, commercial or otherwise, generates an amount of $150 billion every year for traffickers, according to the International Labour Organisation.
There are about two million people enslaved worldwide, including children under 18 years accounting for 26 per cent of trafficked persons. The victims are forced into early marriage, prostitution and forced labour.
The Africa region has the second highest estimate of about 3.7 million persons enslaved. Asia and the Pacific have the highest number of people in modern slavery in the world – an estimated 11.7 million.
There are 1.5 million persons enslaved in the developed world, according to data provided by Free the Slaves, an organization working to free people in modern slavery around the world.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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