The Western Regional Police on Saturday intercepted a group of children numbering 145 being conveyed in four lorries, heading towards Half Assini and La Cote d’Ivoire for alleged child labour. The interception comes barely a week after six suspected slave masters were nabbed by the Kwesimintsim police near Takoradi for attempting to traffic 14 boys and four girls to neighbouring La Cote d’Ivoire. Briefing the press, DCOP Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, Western Regional Police Commander, said at 5:30 am on Saturday, August 2, 2008, policemen on duty around Ituma near Sekondi, intercepted 207 Benz bus with registration number GR 431 V driven by Anthony Atobrah; Hyundai Urvan registered GW 871 Y driven by Mahama Mamoud and Nissan Urvan, number CR 464 N driven by Faisal Entsie. Upon inspection, the police saw 145 children, 22 adults and some mats aboard the lorries but there was no luggage. Some of the children had some unsigned identity cards with their names written in English and French indicating that they were visiting their parents in La Cote d’Ivoire to collect their school fees. When interrogated, three of the drivers said they picked the children from Ekumfi Imuna near Mankessim, Abrobiano near Komenda and Nakwa, all in the Central Region and that their parents were engaged in fishing business in Half Assini and had arranged with them to send them after the basic schools had vacated to assist them in their business. Driver Mamoud Mahama, however, said he was conveying them to New Town, a border town near Half Assini, where the parents had arranged to meet the children, pay their fares and take them along to La Cote d’Ivoire. The Regional Police Commander pointed out that when most of the children were interrogated, there seemed to conflicting statements which alarmed them to escort the vehicles with the occupants to the Regional Police Command for further interrogation and investigations. DCOP Alhassan said after the statements of those involved had been taken, the matter would be referred to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Police Service and the Department of Social Welfare and that preliminary police investigations had begun. He noted that the issue of child trafficking and child labour were of great concern hence the police had been advised to be more curious, search vehicles and interview children traveling to border areas. When DAILY GUIDE interviewed the drivers, they insisted on not trafficking the children saying it was an annual affair that the parents of the children arranged with them to convey the children to Half Assini and its environs to assist them in their fishing activities. They added that the children were normally conveyed back some few days to the reopening of first term of the basic schools in Ghana. Source: Daily Guide