Modern-day slavery continues to persist across the world despite national, sub-regional, and global efforts to prevent it.

According to the International Labour Organization, 25 percent of the 40 million victims in 2017 are children, mostly in forced labour or marriage.

Economic pressures -worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for cheap labour, and cultural practices are the core factors of the situation.

Ghana’s situation is not different. The country has become a source of transit and destination for human trafficking.

Most trafficked people, especially children, are made to work in the fishing sectors, begging, mining, hawking, cattle herding, and as sex workers, both locally and across the borders of the country.
They mostly work under inhumane conditions with physical and emotional tortures.

To address the growing canker, Actionaid Ghana – a human rights-based organization, with funding support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, has partnered with Civil Society Organisations, including the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), embarking on “Combating Modern Day Slavery in Ghana” project in the Northern, Upper West, Oti, and Bono Regions, to strategically advocate to reduce the situation within the agricultural sectors.

The three-year project which ends in 2023 targets cashew growing communities, with a focus on Jaman North, Jaman South, and the Tain districts in the Bono Region, where modern-day slavery is widespread.

Actionaid Programs Officer in the Bono Region, Kwame Afram Denkyira, at a dialogue with CSOs, chiefs, farmers, community members, the media, and state institutions, said combating modern-day slavery in Ghana is a shared responsibility, hence the partnership.

He noted that the lack of informed voice among the CSOs to speak against the prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership issues of modern slavery is a critical gap that needs to be closed if they are to achieve their target.

Bono Regional officer of GAWU, Paschal Ajongba Kaba, explained that modern-day slavery as a human right issue is a reality in predominantly farming communities, where child trafficking, forced/child labor, exploitative, debt bondage, etc. are prevalent, especially in the cashew production value chain.

He also noted their concern for the over 1.6 million young Ghanaians involved in indecent work within the agriculture value chain.

These situations, he said, do not guarantee the right to decent work as captured in acts such as the children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560) and the Labour Act (Act 651).

The continuous creation of awareness to address modern-day slavery and human trafficking, Mr. Ajongba Kaba said, would be meaningless if perpetrators are not prosecuted and victims are supported to seek justice to deter others who plan to enslave and exploit other people and children.

He, therefore, appealed to stakeholders, including; state institutions, NGOs, and CSOs in the districts to give more attention to the issues while “strengthening their coordination role, and also give the government the needed pressure to activate the necessary legal framework to address modern-day slavery and indecent work practices”.

Peter Yaw Duah, Bono Regional Social Welfare Director, bemoaned the absence of a residential home or shelter to accommodate victims of modern-day slavery, while they take steps to repatriate or reunite them with their families.

He appealed to the government and other stakeholders to help them in that regard so they could effectively protect rescued children in the region.

Queen-mother of Faaman in the Jaman South District, Nana Akua Ferkaa II, urged parents and guardians to ensure that their children attend school, so that they can know and defend their rights.