Ninety-five percent (95%) of the survivors of human trafficking are Nigerians.

These persons are currently being sheltered by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection with the majority being Nigerians. The youngest among the victims is a 12 years old girl.

Deputy Director in charge of the Human Trafficking Secretariat at the Ministry Mrs. Sena Owusu-Gibson disclosed this at a 5-day advance training workshop for 20 selected journalists from Ghana and Nigeria organized by Expertise France under the auspices of Government of Ghana with support from the European Union.  

She lamented that, "the inhuman experiences victims go through leaves many of them traumatized, with psychological, emotional and physical wounds that may take many years to heal."

Mrs. Sena Owusu –Gibson noted that, such victims need to be protected through various means such as hiding their identities, locations and any information that may provide leads to their identity and whereabouts to avoid victimization and traumatization.

She urged journalists from the two countries to always exercise decorum in handling reports on human trafficking and also for journalists to use their tools to expose persons involved directly and indirectly in the act.

The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection operationalized the adult and children’s shelters in 2019 and 2020 respectively to provide shelter and rehabilitation and ensure the reintegration of rescued trafficked victims.

“The HTS is therefore, excited that Expertise France finds it prudent to organize such a training thereby giving Ghana and their Nigerian counterparts a platform to dialogue, learn together and hopefully come up with effective ways of using the media to aid the fight against human trafficking to save the future of our children and preserve the fortunes of our region and continent’ she said.

A media consultant, Mr. Charles Autheman, who facilitated the workshop noted that it is worrying that there is lack of political will and commitment to tackle human trafficking in Africa, a situation he said needs to be looked at urgently

Mr. Charles Autheman said many victims of human trafficking are not familiar with the processes they go through due to illiteracy and lack of necessary information. He, therefore, urged the media to intensify education on the issue.

Project Coordinator for Expertise France, Serge Akpaloo said it is a good opportunity for journalists to be well vexed in the issues of human trafficking in order to help them do good reports on the issues and also help educate the public on the menace.

Expertise France is the French public international cooperation agency. It designs and implements projects which aim to contribute to the balanced development of partner countries, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and the priorities of France’s external action.

As the French public agency for international technical cooperation, Expertise France is committed to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Accord. As a complement to financial resources for development, technical cooperation is integral to France’s response to the environmental, health, social, economic and security challenges faced by governments today.

Expertise France works in close collaboration with French public institutions, as well as with the European Union, in order to respond to the needs of partner countries that wish to improve public policies that tackle these challenges. To do so, the agency coordinates and implements national- or regional-scale projects in major areas of public action: