Reject travel offers to Arab world – Gender Minister
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection has advised Ghanaians to be wary of fraudulent travel agents and ignore advertisements that promise opportunities for women and girls in the Arab world.
According to the Ministry, many unsuspecting Ghanaian women have become slaves in Saudi Arabia, Libya and Greece, being trafficked for sex work, exploitation and various forms of forced labour.
Mrs. Freda Prempeh, the Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection gave the advice when the Coalition of NGOs Against Child Trafficking paid a courtesy call on her.
“Recruiters often target young women and girls with offers of good paying jobs in domestic service or the hospitality industry, but instead, traffick most of them for domestic and commercial sex work and slavery,” she said.
She indicated that traveling was not a bad idea, but asked potential migrants to be cautions in order not to become victims of exploitation.
She commended the government on its efforts and interventions that had enabled the country to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and praised the coalition for their efforts in fighting the menace.
Mrs. Prempeh challenged the coalition to intensify its advocacy against human trafficking to help eliminate the worst form of abuse against humanity.
She urged all stakeholders to come on board to help improve the inadequate operational resources, limited technical capacity for effective investigations, which were impeding efforts to fighting human trafficking in the country.
Mr. Leonard Ackon, a member of the coalition said, Ghana had made significant headway in eliminating human trafficking and commended the government for the number of interventions put in place in that direction.
He said government’s efforts including implementation of anti-trafficking plan, adopting systematic trafficking data and improving inter-agency and civil society corporations to identify and rescue children from trafficking were highly appreciated and commendable.
Mr. Ackon who also happens to be the Director of Advocacy for the International Justice Mission, said awareness creation remained paramount in fighting human trafficking and called on the government to help intensify such campaigns.
Source: GNA