The wife of Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Mrs. Samira Bawumia, left Ghana yesterday to participate in the International Conference in Women Trafficking in Mumbai, India.

Mrs. Bawumia is a guest speaker at the two-day conference, which is being organized by the Maharashtra State Commission for Women in partnership with the International Justice Mission. The aim of the conference is to bring “together international experts in various fields, including members of civil society, law enforcement, and government agencies, to share current policies and best practices being used to combat and eliminate women trafficking.”

She is expected to deliver two speeches at the Conference. She will give a brief address at the opening session and a keynote address later on the topic, “Women trafficking: the reality of violence against women.” 

Mrs. Samira, Bawumia is expected to highlight the problem of women trafficking in Africa and Ghana, the steps being taken to curb it and the challenges in the fight against the menace.

Apart from the age-old trafficking of children mainly to fishing communities along the Volta Lake, the trafficking of women, especially to the Gulf states, has become a headache to the Government of Ghana. Even though the government is collaborating with these countries to fight the menace by banning some categories of working visas to those countries, the human traffickers and their victims are finding alternative routes to get out of Ghana.

The US Department of States’ Office to Monitor and Combat the Trafficking of Persons has described Ghana, as “a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.” 

The wife of the Vice-President is expected to learn about the evolving trends in the fight against human trafficking in order to help her champion advocacy back home.

The conference is slated for July 27 and 28, 2017.