Madam Francisca Oteng Mensah, Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection has called for urgent action to curb new modes of human trafficking that is on the rise in the country.
The Minister, also the Member of Parliament for Kwabre East made the call at her office, during a courtesy call on her by the International Justice Mission (IJM) Ghana, an NGO that supports authorities to respond to and combat human trafficking.
According to the Deputy Minister, there are now new modes of human trafficking such as “trafficking into the streets.”
This phenomenon, she said is where people are deceptively moved from villages to the street in the big cities as beggars.
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She said each beggar is immediately saddled with debt bondage arising from their transportation to the city and given a daily quota of sales to make, to be able to earn their freedom after a period.
She said, each morning and evening, several of them, packed inside a vehicle are dropped and picked at vantage points in the city respectively before and after working for their masters.
This is an intelligence picked from the National Security and the National Intelligence Bureau, she stressed.
This, amongst other existing forms of human trafficking and social vices, she said are of great concern to the Ministry and all hands are needed to support the fight with the Ministry and affiliate agencies to curb the menace.
The Deputy Minister also acknowledged the importance of the works of IJM and added that “human trafficking is a headache for all us.”
She thanked the IJM officials for the kind words and congratulatory messages on her appointment and the interest to keep working with the Ministry and relevant secretariats under it.
The delegation from IJM was led by Anita Budu, who is the newly appointed Director of IJM West Africa.
Madam Oteng Mensah congratulated the new Director and remarked “I am particularly happy that we have a woman occupying this position. I want to assure you of my assistance and commitment.”