Department of Political Science

Causes of Child Trafficking

A case study of Ghana

Spring 2011 Christina Wenngren

Supervisor; Martin Hall
Abstract

Despite the growing efforts by international and national actors to combat

trafficking in human beings, the slavery of our time is flourishing. Among the
victims of trafficking, children are especially vulnerable, as they completely
dependent on adults for livelihood and rights.
In the contemporary debate few studies treat trafficking as a problem in its
own right. This study aims to correct this situation by examining the root causes
of trafficking. Specifically, the study asks about the root causes of child
trafficking in the case of Ghana, and why the laws against trafficking enacted
there are not adequately enforced.
The study use previous work on trafficking to form a theoretical framework,
by constructed categories. Qualitative interview methodology is used to mine
data, with standardised and open questions.
During the field study interviews were carried out with government agencies,
NGOs and private citizens on the trafficking situation in Ghana. The results from
these studies are compared and analysed, in relation to each other and the
contemporary international debate on trafficking.
Through the interviews it was found that, the root causes of trafficking in
Ghana are ignorance and lack of education, the Ghanaian culture of sending away
children with extended family and poverty.
Inadequate enforcement was found to be attributed to inconsistencies in
Ghana's legal framework and enforcement, lack of education and corruption
within law enforcement, and problems with coordination among government
agencies. There is also an imbalance of power in the cooperation between
government and NGOs, as the latter initiate cooperation on the issue.
From the field study it became evident that the contemporary theoretical
framework of trafficking is not adequate to conceptualise and combat the complex
problem, for this a comprehensive approach towards child trafficking is needed.
In Ghana there is a need for clearer legal definitions. Educational effort should
be directed, at law enforcement as well as the general population. And further
coordination is needed, where the government takes a more active role in
initiating cooperation with NGOs and the general population. Trafficking in
children is culturally entrenched in Ghana, so unless concerted efforts are made to
amend this situation, trafficking in children will likely remain a problem there for
a long time to come.

Keyword: Child trafficking, Ghana, root causes, law enforcement

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Purpose ............................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Scope and limitations.......................................................................................... 4

2 Theory ...................................................................................................................... 5

2.1 Legislative approach ........................................................................................... 5

2.2 Development perspective ................................................................................... 6
2.3 Gender perspective ............................................................................................. 7
2.4 Cultural perspective ............................................................................................ 8

3 Methodology ............................................................................................................ 9

4 Trafficking in Ghana ............................................................................................ 12

4.1 About Ghana ..................................................................................................... 12

4.2 Legal system of Ghana ..................................................................................... 13
4.2.1 Constitution of Ghana............................................................................... 14
4.2.2 Children’s Act........................................................................................... 14
4.2.3 Human Trafficking Act ............................................................................ 15
4.3 Child trafficking in Ghana ................................................................................ 16

5 Interviews ............................................................................................................... 18

5.1 Macro-level, Governmental Agencies .............................................................. 18

5.1.1 Ministry A, Senior official........................................................................ 18
5.1.2 Ministry B, Senior official ........................................................................ 20
5.1.3 Judicial Agency, Senior official ............................................................... 22
5.1.4 Law Enforcement Agency A, Senior official ........................................... 24
5.1.5 Law Enforcement Agency B, Senior official ........................................... 25
5.1.6 Law Enforcement Agency B, officers ...................................................... 25
5.2 Meso-Level, NGOs ........................................................................................... 26
5.2.1 NGO A, Representative ............................................................................ 26
5.2.2 NGO B, Senior representative .................................................................. 29
5.2.3 NGO C, Senior representative 1 ............................................................... 30
5.2.4 NGO C, Senior representative 2 ............................................................... 31
5.2.5 NGO C, Representative 1 ......................................................................... 31
5.2.6 NGO C, Representative 2 ......................................................................... 32
 5.2.7 NGO D, Senior representative .................................................................. 33
5.3 Micro Level, Private citizens ............................................................................ 34
5.3.1 Group interview with seven ex-trafficked children .................................. 34
5.3.2 Parent A, Female ...................................................................................... 36
5.3.3 Parent B, Male .......................................................................................... 36
5.3.4 Teacher in Elementary School in a sending community .......................... 37
5.3.5 Additional 1, Discussion with general population.................................... 38
5.3.6 Additional 2, Drawings from nineteen ex-trafficked childrenError! Bookmark not defin

6 Analysis of Findings .............................................................................................. 39

6.1 Root causes ....................................................................................................... 39

6.1.1 Lack of education and ignorance .............................................................. 39
6.1.2 Culture of sending .................................................................................... 40
6.1.3 Poverty ...................................................................................................... 41
6.2 Enforcement problems ...................................................................................... 42
6.2.1 Inconsistency ............................................................................................ 42
6.2.2 Lack of education ..................................................................................... 43
6.2.3 Corruption................................................................................................. 44
6.2.4 Coordination problems ............................................................................. 45
6.3 Need of a Comprehensive Approach ................................................................ 45

7 Conclusions and recommendations ..................................................................... 47

8 Executive Summary .............................................................................................. 50

9 Literature ............................................................................................................... 55
1 Introduction

Concerted international efforts to combat trafficking in human beings can

be said to have started with the UN Convention of 1949 for the Suppression
of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others
(United Nations 1949) efforts that have been intensified steadily, particular
during the recent decade, both at international and national level.
The United Nation Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, especially Women and Children (United Nations 2000), also
known as the Palermo Protocol, helped to give a detailed legal definition of
trafficking and provided an international legal framework that could serve
as a benchmark for action against trafficking and national legislation. The
protocol has since it entered into force in 2003 been ratified and
implemented in the legislation of many countries. Many countries have also
developed additional legislation independently of the Protocol in order to
combat trafficking, although these national efforts vary greatly.
Locally, government bodies and civil society are struggling with both
the supply and the demand side of trafficking. But, despite concerted
efforts, this trade in people not only persists, but flourishes. Today, the
phenomenon has become well established and is widely recognized as the
slavery of our time.
There are no exact figures on how many that are currently victims of
trafficking. But the International Organization of Labour estimates that
around 12.3 million people can be regarded as victims of forced, bonded,
and child labour, while other estimates range from 4 million to 27 million
victims (US Department of State 2008). And according to statistics from the
United National's Children's Fund (UNICEF), human trafficking is rated as
the World's third most profitable illegal business, apart from the trade in
drugs and illegal weapons. Trafficking stands high on the global political
agenda, and attention from media has grown steadily in the last decade.
This study is focusing on trafficking in children. Children are especially
vulnerable to trafficking for different forms of exploitation by adults as they
are dependent on them for their livelihood and enforcement of their rights.
The conditions of trafficked children are abysmal by any standard. They are
forced to perform hard and often dangerous tasks under harsh living
conditions. And the consequences of child trafficking does not stop with the
physical and psychological ill treatment of children, it also has wider, long
term socio-economic implications.
If children are not provided with the opportunity to education, there is a
risk of setting up barriers for the creation of productive employment. The
availability of child labour may also lock the wider economy into low

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productive manual labour. And children that are growing up in an
environment of exploitation and violence might treat the following
generations in a similar way, creating a risk of path dependency.
The research into the root causes of trafficking is still at an embryonic
stage. A lot of commendable work has been done in developing means to
prosecute perpetrators, both in terms of legislation and law enforcement
working methods.
Similarly much research has been conducted on how to refine legal tools
and understanding the global patterns of trafficking. However, research on
the causes of trafficking remains thin in comparison. Most of the available
work on root causes either test certain hypotheses or just take a particular
stance for granted.
These stances often originate from well-established theoretical
traditions, e.g. Feminism and Marxism. As a consequence, trafficking has
often been viewed through the lens of either poverty and global inequality
or enduring patriarchal structures. For instance, while a Marxist might view
trafficking as a result of global inequality exacerbated by growing
internationalisation, the Feminist researchers’ might view trafficking for
sexual purposes as an extreme manifestation of male dominance. While this
may help us understand trafficking from a certain aspect, it also limits our
understanding of the problem's complexity.
Altogether very few attempts have been made to explore trafficking as a
phenomenon in its own right. This study aims to alleviate this shortage by
exploring the root causes of trafficking through qualitative interviews within
the framework of a field study. More specifically the study explores the
roots causes of trafficking by assessing the situation of child trafficking in
Ghana. The main research question of this study is:

What are the root causes of child trafficking in Ghana?

Here it is necessary point out that the occurrence of child trafficking in

Ghana cannot be entirely ascribed to a lack of formal legal provisions. The
country has enacted a series of laws and established several agencies
specifically to combat trafficking in humans, adults and children alike.
However, trafficking is prevalent, and one major reason is that laws are not
properly enforced. Therefore, the main question is complemented by asking:

Why are laws specially designed to combat trafficking in Ghana not

adequately enforced?

The problem with legal enforcement is intimately linked to the root

causes of trafficking. Problems with enforcement may originate from the
same root causes as trafficking, e.g. lack of education, poverty, or cultural
aspects. And if trafficking remains prevalent despite legal provisions
inadequate enforcement is a potential root cause in itself.

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1.1 Purpose

The purpose of this study is not to challenge existing theories on the root
causes of trafficking of human beings but to complement them. More
specifically, the study attempts to find explanations to why child trafficking
is such an inveterate problem in Ghana despite that efforts have been made,
through legislation and institution building, to combat it.
Since this is a qualitative case study, there is no direct necessity for the
choice of country to be representative of any given sample, which would
have been the case with a quantitative study. However, there must be
criteria for the choice of case subject for the study. Even if individual
characteristics are unique, such as the cultural or socio-economic situation,
the case should at least represent some broader category.
Ghana was chosen for a number of reasons. First, West Africa is one of
the most prominent sending regions. Ghana was also chosen because it has
problems with both internal and external trafficking and the country is both
a sending, transit and receiving country. Seen in conjunction, a study of a
country representing all these aspects can help to get a better understanding
of the complex and intertwined web that constitutes trafficking in human
beings, even as this study mainly focuses on the sending aspect of the
trafficking in children internally in Ghana.
Another factor that makes Ghana an interesting case is that its severe
trafficking situation cannot be attributed to a complete lack of will by
lawmakers to combat trafficking or abide by international standards. As
mentioned, the country has adopted several laws both against trafficking in
human beings and for protecting the rights of children. And Ghana was the
first country in the world to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC). But still the country faces severe problems with child trafficking.
If nothing had been done in terms of legal provisions, there would be
little to study, and if legislation and law enforcement were sufficient
measures against trafficking, the scope for research would have been
similarly limited. Again, this study can on that basis address the issue why
the enforcement of existing law does not function adequately. In this
context, it should also be mentioned that according to the US State
Department Ghana was classified as a Tier 2 country (US Department of
State 2010). This classification is given to countries were efforts, including
legislative, have been made to meet minimum international requirements,
but that has so far not managed to live up to these requirements.
Ghana is a poor country, but not abysmally poor in comparison with
other West African nations. And the country has had peace for a relative
long time, the main reason why the country is also a transit and receiving
country in terms of trafficking. This has prompted many NGOs to focus
their activities to Ghana, also positive for the purpose of this field study.
Why does this study focus on trafficking in children? First, it should be
observed that both women and children as groups are generally over-

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represented as victims of human trafficking. Women are vulnerable due to
economic and social marginalisation and are often dependent on fathers or
husbands. Children are similarly vulnerable due to their economic and
social dependence on adults. In other words, the situation of women and
children overlap in the sense that both are especially vulnerable to
trafficking. However, this study focuses on children because they in a
higher degree than women are dependent on others, i.e. adults that have a
responsibility to see to their interests, economic as well as social.
The study will further explore the root causes of child trafficking in
Ghana. Finally, the objective is to analyse already existing strategies in
preventing and protecting the victims of child trafficking, prosecuting the
offenders, making partnerships with like-minded and implementing the
national laws within the subject-matter and make sure they are being
followed in Ghana. The trafficking exploitation of children in Ghana is
quite common and therefore it is important to highlight the problem and put
a lot of resources into finding out why this is happening and how it can be
prevented. The wish with this study is that it will contribute with some
suggestions and recommendations for future work in combating this
abominable crime.

1.2 Scope and limitations

Geographically, this study is limited to Ghana, where the field study was
conducted. And the findings of this study should therefore not be
generalised to the international context or any other country for that matter.
Even though many of the driving mechanisms behind human trafficking,
such as the push factor of poverty and pull factor from the developed
countries remain constant, findings from any field study cannot be
transferred due the cultural aspects may underpin the recruitment process.
Internationally, there has been a clear focus on trafficking in women for
sexual purposes. The linkages between trafficking in women and trafficking
in children are blurred, as the two often overlap, the purpose, methods and
channels of recruitment often being the same. However, these factors can
also differ between the two types of trafficking. Even if the purposes and
methods were the same, the focus on trafficking in children limits how
results can be generalised to the trafficking in women/adults. Also adults are
coerced, tricked and threatened into trafficking, but a major difference is the
far higher degree of dependence that children face. The legal treatment of
the two groups also differs which has consequences when asking about
enforcement of the laws concerning child trafficking.
When conducting a field study time is often a limiting factor. And more
time in the field would naturally have been beneficial for the purpose of the
study. However, both the quantity and quality of the interviews superseded
initial expectations, so this cannot be seen as a severe limitation.

4
2 Theory

There exists no coherent theory on the root causes of trafficking in human

beings. Instead, thoughts on the causes of trafficking come from a variety of
different theoretical and methodological traditions. Often viewed through
the lenses of each respective tradition and within certain frames, either as a
crime against humanity or a manifestation of male dominance over women,
trafficking is often treated as theoretically ad hoc or an extreme of other
phenomena, such as migration, child labour or prostitution.
Despite, or rather due to, this incoherence little attempt has been made
to categorise theoretical perspectives into comprehensive schools of
thought. The problems surrounding such processes are exacerbated by the
overlapping and intertwining of the different perspectives. There is seldom
any clear representative of a given approach. Despite this, an attempt is
given below to sort the most prominent thoughts into different theoretical
perspectives.
It should also at this stage be clarified that this is not a theory testing
study, the perspectives are used as a frame of reference only. Theory testing
would first of all have required testable theories, these are only rough
categorisations. And theory testing would have required closed questions, as
opposed to the open questions used here, or a quantitative methodology in
order to test the ability of each perspective in a comparable manner.

2.1 Legislative approach

The legalisative approach refers not so much to a series of hypotheses being

challenged by researchers, as it is a methodological approach to the problem
that trafficking poses. The legislative approach focus on legal provisions,
law enforcement and witness protection The focus is not mainly on root
causes of trafficking, but on the prosecution of traffickers.
The United Nation Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, especially Women and Children (United Nations 2000) is to a
large extent a reflection of a legislative approach towards trafficking.
Human trafficking is defined by the protocol as “[…] an action
involving the systematic or organised recruitment, harbouring or receipt of
persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion,
abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to

5
achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the
purpose of sexual exploitation” (United Nations 2000, Article 3a)).
Although providing tools to efficiently combat trafficking, the
legislative approach does not directly address the root causes. For the
purpose of this study the legislative approach should probably be most
relevant for the second question on enforcement. But the possibility should
not be excluded that legislation is linked to root causes.

2.2 Development perspective

The development perspective also includes other factors that are not purely
economic in nature, but are all causes or symptoms of social or economic
deprivation. Poverty is multi-dimensional lack of income, employment or
other opportunities in life forces people into leaving and creates a ripe
situation for traffickers. The perception that a better life is possible
somewhere abroad is the driving force behind both legal and illegal
migration. And through the same, often desperate, pursuit grows the basis
for deceit by the traffickers.
Some proponents of this perspective also argue that the growth of
trafficking has occurred in tandem with the rapidly growing
internationalisation (e.g. Chuang 2006). Internationalisation, together with
restrictive policies on legal migration from industrialised countries, has
opened a window of opportunity for those who wish to profit from
exploiting women and children.
There are two channels through which international inequality has an
impact, push factors and pull factors. Push factors are often a matter of
survival for the migrants (Chuang 2006: 141). The fact that women are
over-represented in this category make them especially vulnerable, through
unequal opportunity for labour and domestic violence to approaches by
traffickers. The need for migration is a recurrent theme within the
development perspective. Although the choice to migrate is a conscious
action, it may not be voluntary in the full meaning of the word. If the choice
stands between migration and genocide, persecution or starvation, the
amount of free will involved is questionable.
UN Special Rapporteur Radhika Coomaraswamy (2000) concludes that
trafficking is the extension of the traditional female role into the
international market. Trafficking may be caused by poverty, but is made
much worse for women by gender inequality.
However, claiming that poverty is decisive is far from understanding the
channels through which it works. Looking at our contemporary world, a
complex relationship between poverty and trafficking emerges (Danailova-
Trainor and Laczko 2010). Perceived poverty seems to be more important
than absolute poverty in the pursuit of a better life. Among the ten top
countries of origin only one can be ranked as a low income country (ibid:

6
50). This may seem like a paradox, but we must keep in mind that the most
destitute often lack possibilities to migrate. And potential migrants are high
risk targets for traffickers.
Another interesting aspect lifted by Danailova-Trainor and Laczko in
their report, is that trafficking also exacerbates impoverishment. This of
course includes the cost incurred by economies by the resources they
allocate in order to combat the criminal activities, and the loss income that
could have been generated by the victims of trafficking had they been part
of the productive and legal economy. Worse for the sending countries,
which are often developing nations with limited resources, trafficking
means that the remittances which are normally generated through work
force migration are diverted to the traffickers. The value of economic losses
is difficult to estimate, but the illegal profits made by traffickers is estimated
to US$ 27.8 to 36 billion (ibid: 57).

2.3 Gender perspective

The gender perspective of this study is represented by feminist researcher

Sheila Jeffreys (2009) This in part because her study is very representative
of the feminist perspective on trafficking, encompassing the main
arguments, and in part because her work is fairly recently published. The
gender perspective has a clear focus, but the demand side of trafficking, and
mostly on trafficking for sexual purposes.
Jeffreys argues that there has been a lot of political focus on the
prosecution of the repatriation of trafficked victims. She also argues, little
attention has been given to the criminalisation, prosecution and prevention
of men buying sex. She attributes this mainly due to efforts by pro-sex work
organisations that have been more active in trying to separate trafficking
from prostitution in the Palermo Protocol, and also portraying the whole
phenomenon as a minor problem within the sex industry as a whole
(Jeffreys 2009: 157).
The sex industry became vital in the fight to contain HIV/AIDS and
through this the industry gained political leverage. The leverage was later
used to push for the legalisation of prostitution (ibid: 167). Trafficking,
linked to illegal coercion and abuse of human rights, presented a problem
for the legitimisation of the sex industry. And this prompted a trend where
the industry argued for the minimal influence of trafficking within sex
work, claiming that a fraction were actually coerced, the rest were to be
regarded as “migrant sex workers” (ibid: 165). In contrast, Jeffreys sees
trafficking and prostitution as inseparable.
The main point made by Jeffreys is that the neglect to address the
demand side of trafficking, which she attributes to the successful lobbying
of the sex industry, is a major impediment in the fight against trafficking.
She laments the limited attention paid to the root causes of trafficking.

7
Although these are not clearly specified by Jeffreys, she clearly sees these
causes, at least on the demand side, as embedded within the wider sex
industry and the inequality between sexes. It is also a fair assumption that
Jeffreys would agree with the notion that limited opportunities of women in
supply countries serves as a catalyst of trafficking (e.g. Chuang 2006).

2.4 Cultural perspective

The cultural perspective is the least developed as a theoretical framework

for trafficking. But it appears, sometimes ad hoc, in case studies. Danailova-
Trainor and Laczko (2010: 40) distinguish between traditional serfdom,
which is dependent on cultural factors and the international cross-border
trafficking. The latter must be assumed to be more general according to the
authors as they regard the former as being difficult to draw general
conclusions from, due to specific socio-cultural settings.
However, even cross-border trafficking has its origin within borders, or
more precisely, within specific socio-cultural settings, be it a village, nation
or region. Despite the fact that the supply must be generated in these
specific settings, the emphasis on culture is not central in the discourse
surrounding trafficking.
One rare example Singh and Hart (2007) offers is an interesting expose
on the link between sex trade and culture in the case of Thailand. They
argue that the sex industry in Thailand has been perpetuated through the
inclusion of a sex trade into the culture. And that sex tourism itself has
become a cultural industry in Thailand, fostered by a high tolerance level
towards sex trade.
The fact that the industry has become a major source of revenue for the
country has made the official attitude even more relaxed (ibid: 157). But,
the authors also contend that the sex industry has become a cultural
phenomenon entrenched, not only in the contemporary image of Thailand,
but in the deeper rooted fantasy of the seductive nature of the Orient, and
the “Orientals”. The very preference of Westerners to become sex tourists is
according to the authors not just about the act in itself, but woven into our
racial and cultural stereotypes (ibid: 158). This in turn has promoted a self-
image of being “tolerant” towards the sex industry and an international
place of pleasure.

8
3 Methodology

This study is based on a qualitative research methodology as this was most

suitable for the type of data mining required by the research questions
(Becker 1996: 11). The data collection was conducted in the form of
interviews, mainly individual, complemented by some group interviews.
In order to carry out these interviews, a set of open interview questions
was established beforehand. The main advantage of specified, standardised
questions is the coherence, continuity and comparability of the result.
This however, has the disadvantage of imposing limits on the dynamics
of an interview, which is particularly limiting when conducting a qualitative
field study. Therefore, the interview questions were defined and
standardised, but aimed to be open and broad to enable the greatest possible
independence for the interviewed individual.
Recalling the main research question; “What are the root causes to child
trafficking in Ghana?”, the standard questions for the individual interviews
were; In what way do you see trafficking? Why does trafficking exist in
Ghana? What is the best way to prevent it? What are the best ways to treat
the victims and how should one deal with the traffickers? Why is not the
Ghanaian national law on children’s rights and against trafficking
implemented in the society?
As flexibility is needed in order to respond to specific situations as they
appear, follow up questions were constructed (Rubin & Rubin 2005: 136).
However, these are not explicitly accounted for in this study as they were
specific to the individual interviews and therefore likely to intrude on the
anonymity of that person. But the answers are integrated into the empirical
part of the study while keeping anonymity.
Considering the sensitive and difficult nature of the research questions,
the interviews have been conducted in an open minded and friendly
atmosphere (Creswell 2003: 105-106). This in order to build an area of
confidence and security around the interviewed, so that he or she can feel
total security in answering the questions honestly and sincerely without
fearing his or her position or reputation. Both qualitative methodology and
the sensitive nature of the questions necessitated that the interviews be more
like open and comfortable conversations rather than strict standard
procedures (Hargreaves 2006: 204).
Every representative, of an agency or organisation, was asked to give
their opinion in experience of their work, and not through their positions.
And to answer not as a representative of the organisation, but as individuals.
This in order to find their personal opinions and to avoid getting answers
corresponding to mere official positions, already in documented.

9
 One difficulty conducting these interviews, e.g. when interviewing
parents who had sold their children, was to remain impartial and not
disclosing any personal sentiments. Therefore the written questions had to
be prepared meticulously to be impartial and non-leading, and to keep the
same in mind for the follow-up questions.
The interviews were conducted through written notes, and not recorded.
Recordings have the advantage of being able to replay the exact wordings of
a conversation. However, due to the sensitivity of the subject, it was vital to
ensure that the interviewees would not feel that their anonymity in any way
would or could be compromised. The risk that some could find a tape
recorder inhibiting and not disclose information that they viewed as
sensitive was therefore given primacy. The number of persons willing to be
interviewed and the sensitive information disclosed, serves as a
confirmation that this assumption was not incorrect.
The most systematic and methodologically correct way to gather data
was to divide the interviews into sets of individuals, groups and
organisations that are directly involved with trafficking of children at some
stage. The study population was divided into three sub-categories;
governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations and private
citizens, in turn representing three different levels of analysis being
involved macro-, meso- and micro-level of the trafficking problem.
Governmental agencies, the macro-level, refers to different Ghanaian
ministries responsible in the fight against trafficking, such as law
enforcement and judicial agencies. These agencies were chosen to capture
the diverse institutional conceptualisations of anti-trafficking efforts at the
macro-level. Together they constitute the professionals that work with
prevention, protection and prosecution concerning trafficking in Ghana.
Five different institutions were chosen, and six individuals were
interviewed. They were all given the standardised questions cited above,
with room for flexible follow-up questions as the interviews progressed.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the meso-level, refers to the
NGOs in Ghana that currently work with all aspect of the fight against
trafficking, except investigation and prosecution matters. They are often out
on the field being in contact with both victims, traffickers and parents, but
many of them also have close contacts with different governmental
agencies, i.e. they have a meso-position in the fight against trafficking of
children. The NGOs in the study range from some of the largest and world
leading to smaller local ones. At the meso-level of this study, four NGO:s
were chosen and seven interviews conducted. The standardised questions
dominated here as for the macro-level interviews.
Private citizens, the micro-level, refers to teachers in sending
communities, children who has been rescued from trafficking, and parents
who have sold their children to traffickers. In addition to this some private
citizens in Accra were also interviewed, these constitute members of the
general population, affected or unaffected, by trafficking.

10
 It was of great importance to allow the micro-level be represented in this
study, especially the children who have been trafficked, as they have unique
information about the process of trafficking. Therefore a group interview
with seven ex-trafficked children between the ages of fourteen and
seventeen was conducted. Due to the limited time of interviewing the school
children and the different dynamic of a group interview, the standardised set
of questions was slightly modified into two questions, designed to capture
the exact same aspects as the standard ones; Why do you think child
trafficking in Ghana exists? What do you think that Ghana should do to
prevent child trafficking and protect your right?
In addition to this a group assignment was conducted with nineteen
children between the ages of seven and seventeen, also rescued from
trafficking. The assignment was to make a drawing of themselves while
putting down the feelings and emotions, thinking back to the time they
worked as slaves. These drawings were later analysed together with a
psychologist at one of the major NGO:s and serves as an integrated part of
the analysis below. The drawings help in representing the smallest children,
who can be difficult to interview as they might not want to answer questions
as they find the memories to difficult, or answer the questions but in a way
they think they should answer them out of the interviewers angle or their
previous master’s. Drawings provide an easier way to express themselves
for small children. The drawings can be found in Appendix X of this study.
The two parents who were interviewed about the root causes of
trafficking were asked what the government can do better and what they can
do to prevent, protect and care for the population. Teachers out in the
different communities work with children and are educated in another way
than the parents in the rural areas. They can therefore add interesting
viewpoints to this study. One interview has been conducted with a teacher
from a prominent sending area in Ghana, with the standard set of questions.
In addition, questions were asked about trafficking to randomly chosen
inhabitants of Accra, the main question being; Do you know what human
trafficking is? And if the answer was no, the question was changed into a
description the phenomena and asking if this description was familiar to the
person. All these questioned persons lived in Accra, with jobs and
occupations not related to trafficking issues. This was done to get an
approximate on how known the phenomenon was among the general
people. Around twenty to thirty people were asked.
Everyone participating in the interviews was promised full anonymity.
But it was noticed early on that the people felt secure enough to disclose
very delicate information. As a consequence, not only the individuals, but
also the government agencies and NGO:s are anonymous, and the
interviews do not include the specific follow-up questions. Since these
questions makes it possible to track the organisation, which may put these in
a compromising situation, all questions are taken out and the interviews
written as a full text, though with the exact words of the interviewed person.

11
4 Trafficking in Ghana

Before the empirical findings from the field study are presented in detail it
is necessary to describe the country where the data collection took place.
This brief description of Ghana's history, geography, economy and political
system describes the setting in which the trafficking discussed takes place.
This chapter also offers a description of Ghana's legal system, trafficking
situation and legal provisions to combat human trafficking and trafficking
of children.

4.1 About Ghana

Ghana is a constitutional democracy which is located in West Africa and

borders with the three French speaking nations Burkina Faso, Togo and the
Ivory Coast plus the Gulf of Guinea. It was the first country in the sub-
Saharan Africa to gain independence from colonial rule, in 1957. But it was
first in 1992 that Ghana finally became a stable democratic and a new
constitution was written, among other things, allowing a multiparty system
(BBC News).
As many other West African nations, Ghana has the horrific experience
of being a major source of slaves in the transatlantic trade during the
European colonial era. The British, who gave the country the name ”The
Gold Coast”, gradually became the most influential European power. In
1874, the area became a British protectorate, and remained so until 1957
when it gained independence after centuries of colonial rule (Ghana Web).
Ghana is one of the most thriving democracies on the continent. And as
it has been spared from most conflicts, it has often been referred to as an
"island of peace" in one of the most chaotic regions on earth.
The population is approximately 25 million (CIA World Factbook) and
consists of about 100 different ethnic groups and no part of Ghana is
ethnically homogeneous. Urban centres are the most ethnically mixed
because of migration to towns and cities by people looking for employment.
Each group has their own unique language, but English is the official one, a
legacy of British colonial rule. Each ethnic group also has their own
traditions, but they have similar cultural beliefs and a contemporary history,
two factors that unites all the groups to be Ghanaians. Religion plays a very
active part in the daily lives of Ghanaians. Over 68.8 percent are Christians,
15.9 percent are Muslims, 8.5 percent are Traditionalists, 0.7 percent are
other and 6.1 percent consider themselves as non-believers (ibid.).

12
However, even non-traditionalist Ghanaians also pay a lot of attention to
traditional beliefs and social events.
The economy is dominated by agriculture. Ghana is very poor, more so
than e.g. Bangladesh. Approximately 29 percent of the population in Ghana
live under the poverty line. Education has improved significantly lately but
still the adult literacy rate is at 54.1 percent. A recent discovery of oil in the
Gulf of Guinea has become may bring potentially radical change to the
country as it could make the country an important producer and exporter of
oil in the next few years (Ghana Web).

4.2 Legal system of Ghana

The legal system in Ghana is based on the constitution, Ghanaian common

law and customary law (US Library of Congress 1). The constitution from
1992 assures the institution of chieftancy together with its traditional
councils as established by customary law and usage. The National House of
Chiefs, without executive or legislative power, advises on all matters
affecting the country's chieftancy and customary law.
The British introduced the criminal law and penal system in Ghana,
which before was based on more traditional rulings. After more than a
century of legal evolution, the application of traditional law to criminal acts
disappeared. Since 1961 the criminal law, administered by the court system
and based on British common law, has been statutory and based on a
Criminal Code.
But, traditionally the rule of life has to a large extent been set through
the framework of customary rules rather than legislation, which therefore
has not been prioritised. Traditional criminal cases have been an issue for
the chiefs with the base on public consensus sanctioned by custom (ibid.).
Ghana was the first country to ratify the UN convention on the Rights of
the Child in February 1990. The ratification of the convention was the first
step to protect the children of Ghana and give them legal rights. Due to the
ratification many changes and adjustments where done within the criminal
code to meet international standards. But, even though several years have
passed these laws and conventions have not been fully implemented, they
are rather still on a planning and strategy stage.
Different ministries and institutions are assigned different
responsibilities in work against trafficking, some of the more important
institutions dealing with these issues are: the Anti-Trafficking Unit, the
Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVISU), the Ministry of
Social Welfare (DSW), the National Commission on Children (GNCC), The
Ministry of women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC), the commission on
Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Women and
Juvenile Unit of the Ghana Police Service (WAJU) and the Law courts. The
government has also established a 17-member Human Trafficking Board

13
composed of all involved ministries, the security services, but also the
private sector and other important stakeholders.
In Ghana there are four main documents that protect the rights of
children. These are the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the 1998 Children’s
Act, the 2003 Juvenile Justice Act and the 2005 Human Trafficking Act.
The criminal code was amended in 1998 and together with the Children's
Act and Juvenile Justice Act it enabled a legal framework which worked to
acknowledge and protect children. Of these documents the Constitution, the
Children's Act and the Human Trafficking Act are described below.

4.2.1 Constitution of Ghana

The Ghanaian constitution clearly forbids bonded labour of adults and

children alike. The Constitution states the fundamental human rights, such
as; protection of right to life, personal liberty, protection from slavery and
forced labour (Constitution of Ghana 1992).
Article 28 of the Constitution outlines the rights of the child. The
following citation is of importance for the purpose of this study; “the
parliament shall enact such laws as are necessary to ensure that; section
1d; Children and young persons receive special protection against exposure
to physical and moral hazards, section 3; a child shall not be subjected to
torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and
section 4; no child shall be deprived by any other person of medical
treatment, education or any social or economic benefits by reason only of
religious or other beliefs”.

4.2.2 Children’s Act

The Children’s Act of 1998 defines a child as a human being under the age
of eighteen (Section 1). The act states and regulates the rights of the child
such as education, adequate diet, clothing, shelter, medical attention etc. It
also aims to protect the child from bonded labour, torture, inhuman
treatment or punishment including any cultural practice which dehumanises
or is harmful to the physical and mental well-being of the child (Children's
Act 1998, Sections 12-13).
According to the Ghanaian Children’s Act a child under the age of
eighteen is generally not allowed to be employed or do any kind of
hazardous labour.
The Act states different measure to help children “in need of care and
protection” and also defines who those children are. It also explains how
the jurisdiction within the court shall be handled and issues concerning
custody, access, maintenance and general guidelines. The Children’s Act
regulates child labour and protects the best interests of the child in that
respect, but does not directly address the issue of trafficking.

14
 There has been some problems with enforcing the Act, due to the fact
that many law enforcement officials often are unfamiliar with the provisions
of the law that protect children (US Department of Labor).

4.2.3 Human Trafficking Act

The existing policies and acts on child trafficking are rooted in the
Convention on the Rights of the Child from 1989. The Convention as such
guarantees children protection from exploitation, abuse and participation in
family, cultural and social life. It ensures the right to education, health and
nutrition and to have a childhood without violence or forced labour. It also
promotes an ethical view on children, who shall no longer be seen as objects
of welfare, charity or work force. But rather guaranteed rights to take action
for their own well-being.
In December 2005 the Ghanaian government passed a law to combat
trafficking, with the assistance from international organisations. This act
also led to a strengthening of the general legal Ghanaian framework
(Johansen 2011). The Human Trafficking Act criminalises trafficking and
aims to prevent, reduce and punish the crime. Ghana also seeks to
rehabilitate and reintegrate people, both children and adults, who have been
trafficked and created the Human Trafficking Fund for this purpose. The act
also prescribed the penalty of trafficking to a minimum of five years,
parents are not excepted (Human Trafficking Act 2005, Section 3,
Subsection 4).
The Act defines human trafficking as an act of recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring, trading or receipt of persons. Also
where there has been use of threats, force or other forms of coercion,
abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or exploitation of
vulnerability. Or where giving or receiving payments and benefits to
achieve consent of a person for the purpose of exploitation has occurred.
(Human Trafficking Act 2005, Section 1, Subsection 1)
Trafficking include, but is not defined by exploitation. The Act states
that exploitation shall include at the minimum; induced prostitution and
other forms of sexual exploitation; forced labour or service; slavery;
practices similar to slavery; servitude and removal of human organs
(Human Trafficking Act 2005, Section 1, Subsection 2).
The Trafficking Act also states that when trafficking has occurred the
issue of consent at the time the act of trafficking was committed is irrelevant
to the legality of the action: “Where children are trafficked the consent of
the child’s parents or guardian of the child cannot be used as defence in
prosecution […] regardless of whether or not there is evidence of abuse of
power, fraud or deception on the part of the trafficker or whether the
vulnerability of the child was taken advantage of” (Human Trafficking Act
2005, Section 1; 4).

15
 Under the law it is an offence not to inform the police of human
trafficking and one can for such an act be fined and imprisoned for at least
12 months (Human Trafficking Act 2005, Section 6). And if a police officer
do not investigate a report of human trafficking he or she can be subjected
to Police Service Disciplinary procedure.

4.3 Child trafficking in Ghana

Human trafficking is an international problem affecting millions of people

all over the world. In Ghana children are trafficked from or within the
country (US Department of State). Children between seven and seventeen
are also trafficked to neighbouring countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, Togo,
Gambia, Nigeria for the purpose of forced labour (US Department of State).
Girls are also sent to the Middle East and Europe to work as domestic
workers and prostitutes (US Department of Labor).
However, internal trafficking is the most acute problem and here the
majority of the victims are children. Ghana is divided into ten regions, the
ones in the South are poor, but still considered wealthier than the ones in the
North. Despite this, it is the South that is generally a recruitment, or
sending, area and the northern regions are the receiving ones.
Many Ghanaian children are trafficked to work in the fishing industry
carrying out hazardous work tasks. Child labour and child trafficking are
deeply intertwined with the country's fishing industry. Each year IOM
reports numerous deaths of children who have been trafficked to perform
hazardous labour in the Lake Volta fishing industry.
Both boys and girls are trafficked within the borders of Ghana for forced
labour within the fishing and agriculture, for street hawking, forced
begging, religious rites, mining, stone quarrying, porters etc. And the
demand is high, approximately 30,000 children are believed to work as
porters in Accra alone. Girls are mostly trafficked for domestic servitude
and sexual exploitation.
The Ghana Statistical Service estimated in 2001 that approximately 27.2
percent of the Ghanaian children between five to fourteen years old were
working. The majority of these children work unpaid on family farms or
family enterprises (ibid.). When it comes to trafficking, there is no reliable
data of the number of internal or external victims, although the figure is
thought to be in the thousands (US Department of State).
Children represent cheap labour, a fishing net cost more than a child, so
they are worth little to their masters. The fishermen in turn are desperate to
feed their families and getting money from their work. The youngest
children trafficked internally are at the age of four, doing the same kind of
work as the older children.
The parents play a crucial role in the recruitment process as they give
their consent to it. Sometimes the traffickers give the parents an advance

16
payment or promise monthly, quarterly or annual compensation throughout
the work time of the child. The recruiter normally also promise the parents
the child will receive accommodation, food, and even education during the
day, before work starts or at least some kind of work training which can be
of value in the future for the child.
But, in most cases the children do not receive any education at all, the
accommodation is a small barn without furniture and the food is given out
once a day and normally just consists of some corn porridge. The
“educational learning”, will turn out to be only forced labour and
exploitation within the fishing, agricultural or sex industry. The parents
never even receive the money they were promised (US Department of
State).

17
5 Interviews

As described in the chapter on methodology, the interviews have been

divided into a macro-, meso-, and micro level. The macro-level is
constituted by government ministries and agencies, the meso-level by
NGOs, and micro-level by teachers, parents and children respectively. As
much of the information is sensitive, anonymity is prioritised. Specific
questions that could lead to the disclosure of identity behind an interview
are therefore excluded and any ministry, agency, organisation or person
referred to by name in the interviews will be coded by X.

5.1 Macro-level, Governmental Agencies

The interviews identified as macro-level interviews include senior officials

from two national ministries A and B, one senior official from a judicial
agency, senior officials from law enforcement agencies A and B, as well as
officers active within law enforcement agency B.

5.1.1 Ministry A, Senior official

The senior official explained that the reason why the offenders get involved
in trafficking is to get money and property. The victims in turn get involved
in the hope to get a better life. “For the victims poverty is a big factor, but
that is not always the factor for the traffickers, they might just want more
money.“
The traditional family system has become one factor for the spread of
trafficking in Ghana. In some cultures in Ghana the man’s first son belongs
to his sister and in others the first son belongs to the father’s brother. These
matrilineal and patrilineal systems have made it easier for trafficking to
grow, the senior official explained. ”The uncle will then have more control
over the first son then the real dad has. But there can be irresponsible
uncles and so forth.”
The senior official underlined that even if this is customary law, national
law would overrule it. “From the beginning the system (of customary law)
was good. But now people have become more greedy and they want more
and more money. This is due to modernization, urbanization, monitarization
of economy”.

18
 “People know about the national law. Well some do not know, but most
people do know. But the atmosphere is led by the words: 'children shall be
seen but not heard'.
With this, the senior official explained, is meant that a child cannot be
right, even if what the adult is saying is wrong. And even if people know the
dangers the sentiment might still be “the grass is always greener on the
other side”.
Now the state of Ghana comes and says that “the child has a say”, the
senior official explained, while emphasising that it will take time to
implement change. “We need education, awareness crews etc. to really be
able to go and implement the message in all parts of Ghana”. It takes a lot
of time to change customary law and implement national law, the senior
official explained.
We are now going to churches, communities etc. to let them know about
the laws and the dangers with trafficking, the senior official explained. And
stated that they inform people on how children should be treated and that
they cannot do the same labour as adults. “It is of course okay to give a
child assignments to do but not if it is bad for their health, development and
education”. The senior official also said that they are telling people that
non-biological children who are resident in the household shall be treated as
the biological ones.
Concerning enforcement the senior official stated that if the parents have
received education about trafficking and childcare, and the children are back
home but still re-trafficked, then the parents should be punished. Also if the
parents have never trafficked their children before, but do know or should
know about trafficking, but still do it, then they should also be punished.
“With 'should' I mean that there are a lot of communities where e.g.
NGO X is out to inform and education people about trafficking, and sending
away the children to work for other people. In these communities the
parents cannot claim they didn’t know. One has also duties in the society
and NGO X is doing a great job, the duty is then to be open to the
information”. The senior official continued by explaining that if one can be
sure the parents did not know about the law and about trafficking, then they
should not be punished but educated.
But, the senior official also added that “I have seen women who have
sent their children away because of, they say, poverty. But they are sitting
there with their nice clothes and nice jewellery, all over, and I just think
that, that, they did not do this out of poverty; they did it so they can have a
nice life, dress nicely and not have to work. I have seen that, in those cases
it is just the modernization, the greediness and the way people see children
that is the reason. Not poverty”.
Concerning the suggestion to let parents be in jail for one to four weeks,
while Ministry X takes care of the children the high official said: ”No we
can’t change the law, if the law says 4-5 years it should also be between
that. Or whatever is said. One to four weeks is no good. And if a parent
steal, they are not thought of as parents, then no one will care about that”.

19
 Concerning the children in these cases, the senior official did not know
what would happen to them. ”If the case is reported the case would go to
the ministry in charge, if not, I do not know”. “I don’t believe in changing
the law for parents who traffic their children. Parents go to jail every day,
almost everyone in jail is a parent.”
The senior official explained that if a parent is single and ends up in jail,
Ministry X will try to find relatives to take care of the child. And if no one
were to be found, other care would be provided for as a last resort.
“What the law says is what shall happen, if the parents are found guilty;
let them go [to prison]. No special rules.”
“Often it is trustworthy women, looking like me, you know trustworthy,
nicely dressed and proper looking who come to the village to collect
females and propose work as 'bakers, cleaners, etc.' in other places or
countries, like the Ivory Coast. But in the end they will work as prostitutes. I
have seen these women myself, when I grew up in a villages. But at first I
did not know, when this happened in the village, I did not know what would
happen to these girls. I also thought it was something good. But then I
learned, by starting working with these issues, now I know and now I
understand what was happening in my village, what these women were
actually doing with these girls in the end. “
Concerning the work of law enforcement the senior official explained
that there is a big problem in the system and the police needs more
education. “They have to really understand the trafficking phenomenon.
Now they do not understand, they do not fully know what it is and why it is
wrong and how to work against it.“ The senior official also made a remark
that the court process is too slow. “We need education in all lines!”

5.1.2 Ministry B, Senior official

The senior official of Ministry B explained that trafficking exists in Ghana

because of the culture and specified that due to the culture it is very normal
to leave the children with relatives. Which was a good thing before, but now
it has changed and people have started to abuse the system. The senior
official added that maybe the abuse has existed for a long time, but due to
more knowledge about it today people are more aware on what it really
means.
To implement the law is difficult, the official said, people do not know
the difference in enforcement, in fostering the child etc. “Who to blame
when the kid is not in school? The parents for being poor? The kid for not
being in school? Or the government for not helping the population?”
There is a lot of complexity surrounding the phenomenon, the senior
official explained. The traffickers, a.k.a. the fishermen, often think that they
are helping the children, especially if they are relatives, as they give them
training. And then what do you do, the senior official asked, should one
send the whole family to court, that will be many. If the law is correctly

20
enforced, all of a sudden the whole family might be in prison. “The social
structure and the culture is a big problem”.
The causes behind that people are sending away or selling their children
are, according to the senior official, poverty, illiteracy and ignorance, of
both law and by not being educated. “People want to be rich quick! And
think: that the best way to become rich is to sell one of the children, and
then I will be able to buy clothes for the funeral etc”. [Note: funerals in
Ghana are big dress-up occasions, with same fabric in different clothes etc.]
To be able to stop trafficking the senior official thought the best way
was to educate people of the community embassies about the law, so that
they in turn can educate others. But, added that that is not happening today.
“Trafficking in human beings is very technical and very hard to prove. And
one wants to stop it when it looks like there will be exploitation already”.
The senior official stated that one big problem with the enforcement in
Ghana is that there is no clear cut on line on what should be done. Another
problem is that there are no funds, no anti-trafficking finances.
Concerning the knowledge of the police about human trafficking, the
opinion of the senior official was that the total population of the police force
does not know what human trafficking is. The official said that with the
anti-trafficking unit as an exception, the awareness concerning human
trafficking among the Ghanaian police force is weak! “Everybody should be
aware, but awareness on the subject is very weak”.
The senior official said that trafficking can be prevented through the 3P
[prevention, protection and prosecution], education, working together and
through awareness. And enforcement is best done through imprisonment
according to the senior official, explaining that if a parent is found guilty,
something has to be done and the punishment is according to the law
normally 4 years imprisonment.
But, the senior official continued that it is more difficult when there are
children involved, and what should happen to them when the parents go to
jail for having trafficked them. The official suggested that one could give
the parents at least one to two weeks, not affecting the child to much.
Furthermore, the whole community would become scared and learn from
others experiences with the imprisonment, and this would make a change.
The senior official explained further that the traffickers would get five
years in prison. In parallel, it must be shown that it is not okay by parents to
send away the child, for money, because of ignorance, poverty etc. If people
know the prison is only for one month for parents, relatives will take care of
the child during that short time.
It was suggested that Ministry X could take one week of catering for the
children. They can afford that and would be able to accommodate them for
that short period of time without problems. We have to take trafficking in
human beings serious, take the time and resources, both human and funds,
to fight it.

21
5.1.3 Judicial Agency, Senior official

According to the senior official of the Judicial Agency one of the main
reasons why trafficking exist in Ghana, is the “extended family system, the
hostage care system”. “Nowadays people are taking advantage of the
system. The uncle taking the children might use the children himself for
hard labour or sell them to someone else later”.
Secondly, the senior official said, it is because of poverty and that
people cannot take care of all the children and need money, so they sell
them in order to work for other people. Thirdly because of ignorance, and
that this is a very big and important reason, the senior official accentuated.
“Lack of education is a big reason to the existence of child trafficking, and
trafficking in general. If people knew, I don’t think they would send away
their children like that”.
“Fourthly, it is a bit of a status symbol in some of the communities to
have a lot of children, even if you send them away and let them work in
other places”. “Fifthly, there is no punishment, and people know that. And
who would take care of the children if the parents would be punished?
There is no one, and they know that too”.
The senior official explained that the investigation in Ghana is done by
the law enforcement agency and that judicial agencies have to wait on them,
as they do not have anything to do with the investigation themselves. The
judicial agencies do not even hear about the cases, all that information stays
with the law enforcement. They do not even know the cases exist until they
come to their table. “We wait for the law enforcement to investigate and
come with the cases to us [...], but they (note: law enforcement) do not do
that”.
The senior official continued by stressing that even if an investigation
case comes all the way to the judicial stage, it is often so badly prepared so
that nothing can be done with it. “We need to have real information,
witnesses, proof, statements, but we rarely get that. So we cannot do
anything else than send it back, it is nothing to take to court”.
On the question why the cases do not reach the stage of judicial
enforcement, the senior official explained: “Well I do not blame them
really. In the communities, everyone knows each other and everyone is in
some way related to each other it seems. They might be cousins, uncles,
extended family, family through marriage, family from a marriage with a
cousin or even further away etc. And then, no one dares to say anything!”
The senior official explained that it is very difficult to change that
behaviour, however the best way to do so would be through education. “I
mean, even I, I mean if my husband’s cousin would be in some trouble,
doing some illegal things, even I would do nothing. If I would report it my
husband’s whole family, and extended family, and friends etc. would ask
'why did you do that' and contact me and look me up to scream and be
unfriendly. It would be so much talk and so many problems. So for the
peace of mind, I would say nothing, just like all other people think. They

22
might not like it, they might even hope that the extended person would get
caught, but they will not report it themselves, it would be like sending
themselves to an informal lifelong punishment”.
In order to be able to change the trends in the communities, there is a
need to make people aware about the law, and that what they are doing is
wrong, the senior official said. And continued with saying that people
cannot continue protecting each other like they are now, but it is very hard
to change, as it is all very deeply rooted in the communities, and that the
person reporting others will be excommunicated in the village. So the best
way in the end would be to do preventive work “Prevention is the best way
to change this!”
The senior official explained that only the “juicy” cases come to the
judicial enforcement agencies and that all the other cases will end up at the
police department. And the police will then do the investigation all by
themselves, which, the senior official underlined, they are entitled to do, as
it looks like now. And continued that the police often keep the case for a
long time, as they gain money from it. They get money from the attorneys
etc. “The police are very corrupt, and that is a big problem”. The senior
official added that also the judicial agencies are corrupt. “So the problem is
also here. It is a big problem in Ghana, but especially at the Police
department”. “It (note: corruption) is a cultural thing, well it is an attitude I
guess. Yes it is an attitude, and that is very hard to change”.
“But well before July, I must say that I could hardly blame the police for
it either. They then earned around 100 dollar a month, normally people
working with such work, earn maybe 800-900 dollar a month. 100 dollar,
for a lot of work, and you got a family and everything to take care of. Then
it is not so strange you take some advantage of the situation and get some
more money. But now, since July this year, the police got a big pay raise
and they now earn 600-700 a month, which is good, but the corrupted
system is still there and has not changed one bit. You now just get more
money”.
The senior official explained that there is a need for change of mind
when it comes to the next generation of police officers. But added that it
will still take time, the system has been there for such a long period of time
and is deeply rooted in the society.
“The police collect money from the accused person and then say to the
juridical enforcement agencies that “we cannot find any witnesses, so we
will let the offender go”. However, sometimes the boss gets aware of the
case or the media does etc. and then all of a sudden they find witnesses! The
senior official said that the corruption among the police can change with
time, if the police will be educated about it. The senior official talked about
the problem around the approach of the police during the investigation
period. According to the senior official, the police in Ghana do not see their
work as the first step towards prosecution. They do not see it as “this case
will go to prosecution”, neither as “we are investigating so the judicial
agencies will have evidence to prosecute this person”. That should be in the

23
back of their mind during investigation, but it is not. “I do not know what
they think, but they do not plan, they do not work towards prosecution.
Therefore they should be taught”.
To be able to take child traffickers to court, we need to look at the case,
the definition, meaning, is it trafficking or not, but the police do not do that,
the senior official explained.
“The police are not lawyers and they do not know what is needed for
prosecution matters. Then it is a bit depending on the magnitude of the case
where the case is going”.
The senior official said that there is a need for better communication
between the both agencies, and that the judicial agency should be allowed to
play a slightly bigger role when it comes to the investigation. This means
that they should be able to talk about what they need and what the police
has to look for in order for them to do their job in the next stage. The senior
official explained that there have been cases that media has given a lot of
attention to. And the police were, as usual, going to do the investigation.
But then with all the attention around it they had called the judicial agencies
to ask: “What should we do? What information should we look? What do
you need us to get for you so you can do your job in this case?”
“That shows that, they do not know what we need at all. If they knew
they would not need to call us and ask those questions”. “We need to come
to the point where we, at the judicial agencies, are a part of the
investigation! That is very important”.

5.1.4 Law Enforcement Agency A, Senior official

The senior official explained that to combat human trafficking in Ghana

there is a need for more awareness and a need of changing people’s cultural
view as it is not seen as a bad thing to send away a child. The senior official
thought it is important to show the population that it is in fact wrong. We
need a change of mind, for the whole society, from parliament level and
down, not only in the receiving and sending communities.
Most people do know about the law in the communities, but not all of
them, so we need to be more pro-active, the senior official stated. The best
way to prevent trafficking is through partnership, with NGOs etc. The
politicians in turn can best prevent trafficking through information
campaigns and education, the senior official continued.
The senior official considered there to be enough knowledge about
human trafficking among the police force, but added that it can always be
better. On the question on the thoughts whether the police can identify
victims or not, the answer was that more police can identify victims
nowadays and they call us when they see a bus full of children for example.
Concerning the enforcement, the opinion was that both parents and
traffickers should be imprisoned.

24
 The senior official stated that they did not have enough resources but the
problem was mainly due to the fact that they did not have enough vehicles
or computers. The government should help, the senior official explained,
but added briefly that they have a lot of problems. As the senior official did
not want to evaluate the subject more, the discussion went over to the
identification of trafficked children. The senior official explained that there
are three elements concerning whether adults are trafficked or not, act,
means and purpose. During the investigation one also has to look at whether
the person was forced or not and if the action was devised. But, when it
comes to children all that is not necessary, a child is, under the law,
exploited. It is harder to see when a child is trafficked than an adult, the
senior official expressed.
“We want to change people’s mind not on child trafficking but on
human trafficking, in the law there is no age!”

5.1.5 Law Enforcement Agency B, Senior official

The senior official expressed worries considering human trafficking in

Ghana which was explained as a big problem. “And the police do not have
enough resources to take any action. We do not have the capacity to
accommodate saved children. Social Welfare should come up with
something but there is nothing really. And we do not have enough place or
resources to find and put the offenders away either. This is a big problem”.
The senior official explained that it is a cultural phenomenon that is the
root behind the trafficking of children. It is rooted in the tradition to take
care of the children of your brother or sister if they cannot take care of them
properly themselves, or if they get sick, or even die.
And people have really big families in Ghana, especially in the country
side. So if one person has for example six children and then his brother dies
and leaves his six children without a dad, then it is the responsibility of the
brother who is alive to take care of his children too, meaning he will all of a
sudden care for 12 children, the enforcement official pointed out. And
marked that maybe the family did not have enough resources to take care of
their own children in the first place. It is then easy to send some of the new
children away to extended family, or even sell some of them to strangers, so
that you can use the money for the ones being left. “It is not good, but it is
happening”.

5.1.6 Law Enforcement Agency B, officers

There was a slight problem conducting this group interview as nobody knew
what human trafficking was, nor what the definition of trafficking is or how
to recognise victims. The officers where chocked hearing about the

25
phenomenon and asked questions such as; What is human trafficking? How
do you identify a victim? If you let your own child work, is that trafficking?
The interview developed into a general discussion about the
enforcement situation in Ghana and the officers explained that there is a
problem of respect for the police among the citizens.
The officers continued with that neither the appearance nor the
equipment carried by the police inspire respect from the general population
of Ghana. And that it is important to radiate security and respect as a police
officer.
The law enforcement here does not represent any feeling of strength or
reliability, and that is both important factors to build trust and respect.
People also know that the police can’t do much, the officers said. And they
explained that the criminals normally got better equipment.“People do not
feel safe and in security when they see the police here as they do in the
western world”.

5.2 Meso-Level, NGOs

The meso-level comprises representatives from four different NGOs A, B,

C and D. NGO B is represented by two senior representatives, 1 and 2,
while NGO C is represented by two senior representatives, 1 and 2, and two
junior representatives, 1 and 2.

5.2.1 NGO A, Representative

The representative explained that over the years people tend to only blame
poverty as one of the causes, and it is still one of the main causes, but not
the only one. Now we also put in ignorance, people do not have enough
information and knowledge about trafficking. The representative also stated
that illiteracy is a big problem in Ghana.
But the representative also highlighted that schools and universities are
big recruitment areas, so big sensitization campaigns are needed there.
“People are fooled into following the traffickers by promises of summer
work or holiday”.
The representative did not think all people in Ghana know about the
law. And explained: “How could they when not even the people who work
within the areas of law enforcement and such know about the law. Many
people in the police force do not know, how can we then demand the people
out in the country to know?”
People do not know that it is illegal to send away the children according
to the representative because the people who should go out and inform them
about it, about the law, have not done it.

26
 The representative explained that the Ghanaian constitution says that;
ignorance of the fact is an excuse, but ignorance of the law is not, and
continued by explaining that this means that someone can get pardon or
lower charges for not knowing the facts in the court, but cannot get the same
relief for being ignorant towards the law.
“We need enough general education on the law, but also more
education among the police officers, as they also do not know the law. The
police officers do not learn about the law, they get taught about the
phenomenon, but not what the law really says or what the different
paragraphs says. They might know that there is a phenomenon called
human trafficking, but they would not know more than that, they do not even
know it is a law covering it. There is no care factor”.
On the question whether all police units are able to identify child
trafficking the representative stressed that it is enough to see the person
being in need in order to step in and help, and that they do not even need to
see that it is trafficking. Then other people can take a look at if this is
trafficking or not.
Current enforcement is not good according to the representative. And
that is why Ghana is put on the US department of labour’s trafficking in
persons report.
“We need more publications on the law, in schools, communities etc.
Everyone should know there is a law to protect people, both adult and
children, from trafficking and violence”. However, this is not being done
according to the representative because of two things; political will and
pressure on some resources, trafficking is not seen as a level one priority.
Being asked about the relation between the judicial agencies and the law
enforcement, the representative expressed: “Oh that is a complicated
question, it is not so good“. The problem is according to the representative
that it is the Attorney General Department (AGD) alone that is responsible
for all the prosecutions. And that it is a department filled with all the
lawyers of the Country who are supposed to prosecute each case alone. But
they do not have any people at all in all the communities.
The representative explained the situation by stating that the
implementation is done at the grass roots, at the community level and the
investigation is then done at the district level by the police. The
representative further explained that it is too far to go to the AGD with
some of the cases from the rural areas. And because there is no AGD except
at the general state level, the problem has been solved by giving prosecution
powers to some of the police officers at district level instead.
But, the problem is that the police prosecutors are not well educated in
the matter and do not have enough information about it, so in reality very
few cases are actually being prosecuted.
The representative continued by stating that it furthermore is difficult to
see the difference between culture practice and crime. “How to draw the
line between trafficking and culture? An uncle with a nephew who work
hard, is it trafficking or hard labour? Can be hard to state the difference

27
between the two”. It was emphasised by the representative that the fact that
there is not enough personnel together with some cultural elements that
makes it very difficult to recognize trafficking of children.
Concerning whether the judicial enforcement should be allowed to play
a consulting role when it comes to the investigation the representative
explained that: “Well in the investigation there are sometimes elements of
conflict of interest. So they should be able to see the cases from the
beginning, but they should not be allowed to interfere too much”.
The representative continued with adding that the law enforcement
agency really is in need of help when it comes to how and what to look for
during the investigation process. And the juridical enforcement could help
them with that kind of information. “But now it is not like that”.
After careful consideration the representative explained that there is a
high level of corruption among the police and that it dramatically harms the
population’s confidence towards them. “People here in Ghana do not feel
respect for the police”. The representative considered that the law had been
subtle when it comes to the question of imprisonment of parents. And
expressed that it is most often the traffickers who are the subject of
imprisonment. “When you put a parent in jail, who will take care of the
child? We don’t have a social welfare system for that. It (imprisonment) will
break down the family and the children will take the hit. “
The representative did not think that parents should go to jail, though if
the child would be cared for it would be different. “We don’t have the
system of “the child can live here for a while”. If the court or traditional
system could put out factors on what to do in each special case it would be
okay”.
The representative was of the opinion that it would be a good idea if it
was possible to give the parents one to four weeks of imprisonment for
trafficking their children, and if then Ministry X could take care of the
children. And explained that the fear of getting caught would still be there.
Discussing the fact that also a robber or a trafficker might have children, but
still go to jail the representative stated that it is a case of the devil’s
advocate. The main problem when it comes to the parents sending away
their children with traffickers is ignorance, people don’t know they do
something criminal by letting their children leave with someone for money.
So it is not the same as to strangle someone, the representative thought.
The representative continued that some of the ministries, working with
the prevention of trafficking are not enough educated in the subject. And
added that they have no resources, no staff and no specialized skills for
different children’s needs “They don’t have it because it is not a priority of
the government to see to the social services of the country”.

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5.2.2 NGO B, Senior representative

According to the senior representative one reason why trafficking exists in

Ghana is that the law has not been implemented fully on the ground. Today,
NGOs do 85% of the work and the government only 25%, the representative
stated (note: even if this does not add up the message is clear).
“The government has not much education or funding to do anything
against it. It is the NGO’s who gives out most of it”
The ministries working with the prevention of trafficking do not do
enough, the senior representative explained, but also added that some of
them have started, so it has become better nowadays, although the law has
existed since 2005. “If all agencies had enough education and knew the
law, then prosecution would not be a problem. The law has not gone in.”
One of the causes behind sending away children is lack of education
according to the senior representative. “If you would go to the parents and
ask, they would say it is because of poverty. But I say that it is about being
uneducated and about the knowledge about oneself.”
The senior representative stressed that if people were educated they
would learn how to think by themselves, to criticize things. And continued
by saying that ignorance is one of the main reasons why child trafficking
can exist in Ghana. People have a lot of children because they do not really
have anything else to do, but if people would be more educated, they would
occupy themselves with other things. “People cannot care for all their
children. The Volta region is very dry, it is hard to harvest the land and it is
hard to live there, and we also have big child trafficking problems there.
The Ashanti region on the other hand, it is very green and every seed you
put in the ground will grow and become big! But then we do not have a big
trafficking problem there either.”
The representative also stressed that traffickers often search for their
victims in the school and universities, saying things such as: “I am an agent
for this and that and I can take you to e.g. the USA, etc. And people think
that the chance to get a good job within their studies in the USA is bigger
than here and they agree. But when they arrive there will of course not be
any job like that waiting for them, they will be exploited and owned by the
trafficker in question”.
And the senior representative continued that it is also rooted in a family
tradition to send children to relatives. “The relative in question can be a
long, long away relative, but he is still called 'uncle'. It is a kind of
customary law.”
The senior representative thought that it is possible to change the
customary law and instead implement national law concerning trafficking of
children. But added that “We need time to educate people and let all
stakeholders play their role.”
We need to strengthen the network to be able to take enforcement
actions, the representative stated. “There is a difference between child

29
trafficking and child labour and the enforcement need to be clear about this
and which one has what punishment, they are both illegal.”
The senior representative considered that parents also should be arrested
for sending away their children, and explained that many of them know
from the beginning that when they send away their children, or sell them,
they will go to the worst kind of labour! But they still do it for the money
and they should be arrested for that, the senior representative expressed. The
representative continued by saying that it sadly is not possible in Ghana
today though, because there is no social network take care of the children.
The senior representative considered the police in Ghana not to know
about human trafficking. And that it was needed for the police to learn
about new laws and know what they mean. And that they should have a
desk responsible for getting police men/women from every region to
educate them about the new laws and what that means for their work. So
they in their turn can educate their regional colleagues about what they have
learned in the headquarters of Accra. ”This should be done with every new
law made, but it is not. So people do not know.”
To be able to stop trafficking all the non-governmental organisations
need to work together. “We need to share ideas, it is very important, like
that in two years we would be able to have prosecution too.”

5.2.3 NGO C, Senior representative 1

There is a severe problem in Ghana with childbirths and family planning.

People, especially in the rural areas, have a lot of children. The senior
representative explained that it is needed in the country side because of the
need for extra workforce within the families. But that it is also is a big
prestige in having many children. When a woman gives birth to her tenth
child a big celebration party is organised and she is heaped with gifts and
admiration from others in the village, the senior representative explained.
The senior representative stressed that even if it is known to be hard to
cater for all the children, the respect is more valuable. Many people do
know what will be asked of the children, but are not aware of the worst
details, the representative explained and added that there are some who do
not know anything.
It was emphasized by the senior representative that to fully be able to
prevent trafficking from happening, there is a need to help the families, give
them education and true possibilities by for example offering micro-credits.
“When asking why they sold the child they often tell a sad story of why
they needed money, which, sometimes, is true, but often not. It is just a way
to explain the action, to make it sound 'better', to find a better reason for
selling your child than 'just' because of poverty.“

30
5.2.4 NGO C, Senior representative 2

The best way to prevent child trafficking before it happens is, according to
Representative 2, to nourish the information flow. There is a lack of
information around people, parents, children, traffickers etc.
We need laws that say that parents need to have the children in the
school and need the possibility to make that a reality so people can live and
afford to have the kids in school and not to have them at home.

5.2.5 NGO C, Representative 1

According to the representative child trafficking exists in Ghana because of

ignorance, poverty and cultural practices, which takes form in the old
customs of sending the children away to stay with extended family for some
time. When a child is born in Ghana, it is considered to belong to the
community, the representative said. This view is not something that exists
only in the country side, but also in the urban areas, such as in Accra. “It is
a Ghanaian phenomenon and not a rural one”.
People tend to have very big families as it is seen as a security for the
future, but it is also the result of a sever lack of family planning. Even
though people know they will not be able to cater for a large family they
have it, but then there is always the possibility to send the children away to
extended relatives.
Many people in the communities and rural areas of Ghana do not know
about the laws against child trafficking. So the main thing is education and
also law enforcement.
But, it is still takes time to change people’s view on what is right and
wrong, and it is hard to stop well established practices at once. The best way
to prevent child trafficking from happening is through education and we
need to create more education projects.
The politicians on their part are also important actors when it comes to
education within the subject and providing information.
Another problem, the representative explained, is that in Ghana when
new national laws are passed, they are only written in English and not in
any of the local languages. And many people in the communities do not
know English. So even if they would like to look it up, they cannot. There
are many languages and dialects in Ghana, to translate the laws into every
single one of them would not be possible. But, to translate the laws to the
biggest local languages would be possible and also send a signal of respect.
In multi-lingual countries, every citizen normally have the right to take part
of the laws they are living under in their own language. However, this is not
the case in Ghana, though there have been some efforts recently to translate
a few laws into the major local languages.
The representative stated that the police have been trained in the subject
of child trafficking and should have knowledge about it. They also get the

31
opportunity to know about it through media, as they know that trafficking is
illegal and involve dehumanising practices.
On the question if parents should be imprisoned for selling their children
or not, the answer was complex. The representative thought that there
should be good enforcement. But, that it is not that easy as one has to think
about the children and what will happen to them if the parents are put in jail.
“We do not have any good social welfare in Ghana. There is not anyone to
take care of them. But, on the other hand, if you have broken the law, the
law should also be enforced and you should be convicted”.
The representative explained that there does not say anywhere in the law
who shall be convicted for trafficking and who shall not. Neither traffickers,
nor parents are given a veto when it comes to breaking the law against
trafficking. Reasoning like that, the representative thought that there shall
not be any exception for the parents. But, this brings about other problems
too. In Ghana the laws exist, but it is hard to enforce them because of the
system. “We (Ghana) really need to strengthen the social welfare system
and especially the social protection for the children”.

5.2.6 NGO C, Representative 2

The representative explained that some parents do not know what happens
to the children when they send them away with the traffickers. The
representative further explained that they are given false promises,
sometimes even from relatives, promising that their children “will get a
better life”. But, the majority of the parents do sells their children because
of financial problems.
The representative thought that many of the communities do not know
the law against trafficking exists. There is a need of educating the parents
about trafficking and about children’s rights, this rather than put them in
jail, that will not solve anything, the representative stated.
The representative also stressed the importance of working through the
4P, prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership. It is also important
to have a good working relationship with the police.
Information flow was also stated as a major need in the communities. It
is also needed improve the family situations, e.g by giving them micro-
credits. The re-unification process is of great value also for the preventive
issues, the representative said.
Another way to prevent child trafficking is to try explaining to the
fishermen what they are doing to the children and what they expose them to.
Enforcement is difficult, the representative expressed, since all traffickers
cannot be arrested, as it is in their culture to use children for work. Many of
themselves are ex-trafficked children.
Instead one needs to inform and help change also the prospects of the
traffickers. The representative said that helping the fishermen with money
and more modern fishing equipment might make it easier for them to

32
continue their work, even without trafficked workers. “That might change
things, but to arrest them will not change anything”.

5.2.7 NGO D, Senior representative

The senior representative considered the main reason to trafficking to be

poverty. Poverty creates vulnerability, the senior representative stated. But,
also other factors are crucial, like the loss of a parent or both, and ignorance.
Out of ignorance, people are vulnerable. They don’t ask themselves
questions, why, how, when, they just trust the people coming with the aim
to give their children a “better life”.
People send away their children a lot because of traditional reasons.
But, the original reason to send the children away is not bad at all. The
tradition as such is good. It is just how it has developed that is bad, the
representative explained.
Families help each other out, if one part of the family is poorer than the
other, the latter will help the prior by taking care of some of the children for
a while. But, now this system has eroded, people nowadays are more
focused on their identity, their own success and future. And children
therefore get abused, the senior representative explained. Furthermore the
tradition has also developed from sending children to relatives to sending
them away with strangers. “It is now all about getting money. It moved from
one stage to another”.
The representative explained that the system first was a form of social
protection. “If a child lose his/her father the traditional system made sure
you will get a new father figure, by letting an uncle act like a father and
care for the child as would it be his own. The same goes for a mother, a
divorce etc. It makes the weakest ones in the family taken care of”.
But, the representative considered the traditional system nowadays as
corrupted, this because people do not think the same around it, and it has
changed the whole system as such. Families are now more nucleus?. The
family that one should care about nowadays consist of mum, dad and
children, not more.
Child trafficking can develop in Ghana because of the huge problem of
ignorance, people need to get information about where the children are
going and what they will do. One cannot send away the children with
strangers, or relatives without knowing these things. The representative
stressed that one cannot just choose to trust people, one need to really get
the information.
It was the representative’s opinion that some people know there are laws
against sending the children away to work and some who did not. If there is
a case where the person did not know about the law he/she cannot take part
of the system. But, the people who do know about the law, and still breach
it, well the vulnerability makes them not care. People might know the law,
but feel they have no choice.

33
 Concerning the police, the representative did not consider them having
enough knowledge about trafficking nor the measures to combat it. But, to
really stop the whole phenomenon, the representative considered there was
a clear need to show what happens when people do send their children
away, there is a need to put in enforcement. Among the main solutions to
stop child trafficking, the representative acknowledged the improvement of
people’s livelihood.
The representative further stressed that the traffickers often know that
the laws exist and accentuated that if the parents knew the risk of getting
caught they would not do it. But, very few cases has led to convictions and
sentencing to jail. And the ones that have been convicted have only been
traffickers and never parents.
The representative stated that people know the risk of getting caught for
trafficking is very small so they do it even though it is illegal, but they
would never rob a bank, as the risk of getting sentenced then is very high.
“If parents would be sentenced to jail that would be the best way to really
implement the law and make people follow it”.

5.3 Micro Level, Private citizens

The micro-level interviews consist of a group interview with seven ex-

trafficked children, two parents who have previously sent away their
children, A female and B male. One teacher from an important sending area
is also interviewed. Included are also members of the general public, in
order to get an estimate of how well-known the phenomenon of trafficking
is in Accra. Furthermore, drawings from nineteen of the youngest ex-
trafficked children will be included.

5.3.1 Group interview with seven ex-trafficked children

This is the only interview where the main questions are used directly,
because of the limited time frame and given the size of the group. The
children are guaranteed anonymity. Each mark represents the expressed
opinion of one child.

Why do you think Child Trafficking exists in Ghana?

- Because of poverty, the parents cannot cater for their children, so when people
come to get their children and says that they will take them (the children) to
school and will even pay the parents some money to do so they do send their
children away with them (the traffickers). But the children do not go to school;
they will just be put into hard work and labour, within farming and fishing!

34
- The only things they got in the village is farming and fishing. If one parent dies,
it is very hard to cater for the kids for the other one. So if the dad dies for
example, the mum sends the children away because she needs money!

- It exists because if one parent dies the other part cannot cater for the child. There
is no way out for them then.

- On problem is teenage pregnancy, it is very common here. It is then considered

that the daughter has broken the “promise” and trust of her parents, she is seen
as given the family a bad reputation so she gets kicked out. The teenager then
has to find somewhere to sleep and cater for herself and her unborn baby. She is
then a very easy victim for the traffickers, and so is her unborn-baby. She has no
house, no family, no money, nothing.

- Role models, there are none. We have no one to look up to. We go to school, but
we kind of know that we will become nothing. Maybe we will be as our parents,
do the same as they do now. But if we had someone to look up to, if we had that,
maybe people would get more motivation and hope for the future, more strength
and more belief. I think it is important to have someone to look up to, but there
is no such person here. We only have the parents and they do not understand,
they are not educated and they do not find it important with education either.

- The parents do not have any education, and they do not like it (education), it is
not needed when it comes to being able to fish! So if they see a child who is not
in school they will find it ok. That child will become like them and that is seen
as something good. Parents here do not care about if the children are in school
or not, or if they want further education.

What do you think that Ghana should do to prevent child trafficking

and protect your right?

- There is no money in the village. And we need education! “Ghana” does

not take care of us, they did not care that we were trafficked and had to do
all that kind of work.

- We have to set a dispute about ourselves. If someone takes a child and

send it away to work and do hard labour for him or her that person should
be punished. That person should be in jail.

- If they are not punished they will just continue and the education will
become lower in Ghana.

- Our parents should be employed so that they can cater for us.

- The government should help the children so that they will be able to go to
school and buy school uniforms for them and such things.

- They (the government) should also make a law that says that no one
should send their child away, no one!

35
- It does not matter to whom, no one should be allowed to send the child
away, the child should stay with the parents. And it does not matter how
the family lives, what are the circumstances. It should be a law against
sending the children away to other people, does not matter to who.
Relative or stranger. The parents themselves should be responsible for the
child, it does not matter to who they send away the child.

- The government should educate the parents. They should tell them about
the bad effects, so they do not send away their children any more. They
should tell about all the bad things, all the bad.

5.3.2 Parent A, Female

According to Parent A, child trafficking exist because of the single parents.

It makes the child trafficking business grow, she explained. If the husband
has died, you just want someone to help you. The causes to child trafficking
is economical, she emphasized.
But, also that “Personally I did not know there was a law against
sending my children away to work for other people, before, now I know”.
“If I would have known then, that there was a law against it, I would, most
probably, have taken other actions”.
To be able to stop child trafficking, the leaders should share everything
equal to the people of Ghana, she emphasised. Now, the educated get the
big part and illiterate a very small part, the woman said gesticulating. “The
government, they only concentrate on the educated people. The leaders do
not care about us who are illiterate, we are not important to them”.

5.3.3 Parent B, Male

Parent B was asked to explain why he thought child trafficking exist in the
area and answered that one reason is that parents go to other places to work
and the children are left in the village alone, even if they are small and they
then have to take care of themselves. The parent explained that this made
them victims of the traffickers.
The parent also brought up cultural reasons as an explanation for child
trafficking, extended family taking care of the children as a part of the
upbringing of the child or for helping out. The children might be brought to
live with the grandparents, and the grandparents maybe die and the children
can then not come back and they then have to support themselves and they
are then easily caught by the traffickers.
The parent said that some people are aware about the laws against child
trafficking in the villages, but they still do it. And some do not know that
the law exist at all. The reasons for people to send away their children to

36
work for traffickers might be many, but the main reason given by the parent
was that if a parent got two children, but is incapable to cater for both of
them, that person might send one of them to work so that that child can pay
for the other one staying home.
The parent considered much of the prevention work to be in the hands of
politicians, as they should put more effort into creating work possibilities
for the population. That is, according to the parent, the best way to prevent
people from sending their children away. The parent emphasized that if he
would have had a real job he would not have sent the children away! “There
is a need for more work for people!”

5.3.4 Teacher in Elementary School in a sending community

One factor favouring child trafficking is all the orphanages in Ghana. They
are easy targets for the traffickers. Nowadays people also make a difference
between their own children and other peoples children. The traffickers do
not understand that they hurt the children, the teacher stressed and
continued: “If someone with money comes and says he or she can take care
of the child, the parents of the child do not care about why and how, they
just send away the kid to them in hope to get some financial help.”
Then there is also the system with the extended family, which is
developing into a problem. People send their children away to the extended
family and this has made it easier to send them away also to strangers.
People do not ask questions since the system is there already, the teacher
explained.
The way to prevent this development from continuing is according to
the teacher by power. The teacher explained that people right now in the
country side have no power over themselves. And this fosters the feeling of
not having any other choice but to send the children away.
To prevent the whole phenomenon, we need to educate people, and
make them understand what is love, passion, understanding. How it feels
like to love and respect? your sister, your friend etc. When it comes to the
enforcement, the teacher thought that traffickers should go to jail. But, when
it comes to the parents, the teacher was not as certain, this because the
educated parents was considered different from the illiterate ones. Educated
parents, the teacher said, would do anything to help their child, make sure it
goes to school etc. The teacher stated that the uneducated population, in
lack of things to do, use sex as a spare time activity. And that they because
of that have a lot of children. But, they cannot take care of the children and
the children become a problem for them.
The teacher’s opinion was that educated parents know what love is and
how to show it, and they know what is important for the future.
Furthermore, they get the amount of children they know they can cater for.
Illiterate parents however, the teacher said, can become very cruel and they

37
send away their children to the traffickers because they do not know what is
right and what is wrong.
Most of them know about the anti-trafficking law, the teacher said. “I
would say that maybe 60% of the population in Ghana knows about the law
while 40% do not know about it”. Concerning the 40% who do not know
about the law are most likely people from rural areas where there no media,
radio or television. People out there do not know about the law and it makes
it easy for the traffickers to come and lie to these parents, the teacher
explained.
Concerning the work of the police, the teacher accentuated the
importance of the national police to reach out to these communities and to
inform people about what the law is and what will happen if they break it.
“The police needs to go to the typical villages affected of trafficking,
sending communities and such, and not only to the cities.. There are villages
that can only be reached by canoe, and the police will not go there. But
they really need to.”
The teacher’s opinion on the politicians however was that they mostly
promised things, but when they got behind the desk nothing really
happened. “They, the politicians, just come here, to the villages, with a lot
of lies and when they have been elected they do not care any more. It is just
a game to be elected, they do not really care and will not try to change
anything”.

5.3.5 Additional 1, Discussion with general population

Between twenty to thirty randomly chosen people from the general

population of Accra, the capital of Ghana, were asked whether they knew
what human trafficking was. If they did not know the phenomenon by name
explanations were made to see if they then knew what it was. The result was
that no one of the questioned people knew what human trafficking was, nor
about the phenomenon as such. And even less about the law and the root
causes involved. People did know about the extended family system, but no
one knew about the development of it nor what often happen to the children.
When questioned about the police, no one felt that they had any respect
for them, rather people tended to find them un-educated and corrupt.
“Sometimes the police do not even wait for you to give them an offer, they
just name a price and leave, what they say shall not be taken too seriously,
they just make up things to show their power”.
The opinion of politicians was that they promise things, but don’t keep
much. But the view of Ghana, as a country, was very positive, people where
proud to be Ghanaians, and proud to belong to such a good and stable
democracy. And everyone considered themselves feeling safe and happy in
Ghana.

38
6 Analysis of Findings

In this chapter the main findings from the interviews are analysed, first
addressing root causes and then enforcement problems. Both sections
compare similarities and differences within and between the macro-, meso-,
and micro-levels. After this, the findings will be compared to the previous
perspectives on trafficking. Again this is not for the purpose of theory
testing, but an overview of how the interview findings fit the contemporary
debate. The analysis concludes with stressing the need for a comprehensive
approach towards child trafficking in Ghana. And policy recommendations
are made that hopefully may contribute to combating trafficking in children.

6.1 Root causes

The root causes appearing as key for child trafficking in Ghana were
ignorance, lack of education, culture of sending, and poverty.

6.1.1 Lack of education and ignorance

It is worth to note that lack of education and ignorance are interconnected,

but distinct problems. Lack of education can lead to people being ignorant
about trafficking, but is not a necessary precondition. Neither do people
have to be generally well educated to know about the consequences of
trafficking.
Lack of education is an important factor for child trafficking since it
creates vulnerability. Primary school, first to ninth grade, is compulsory and
free of charge in Ghana, though the parents have to buy school uniforms
and books. And many children in Ghana do not attend school because the
families cannot afford paying for that or because the children are needed for
work. Even though primary education is compulsory, parents rarely face
any kind of penalty if they prevent their children from attending school.
This is a problem since lack of primary education increases vulnerability
towards trafficking, and other social problems for that matter.
There is a problem concerning the parents view on basic education, as
they do not fully understand the value of it. And even if their children are in
school they do not completely support it as they consider work experience
to be better. It is therefore important with sensitization concerning education

39
among parents, and also long term efforts are needed in assuring that the
children’s education pays dividends even for the parents.
But, although lack of education increases vulnerability, it is not
necessary for becoming a victim. Universities are popular recruiting
grounds for traffickers (e.g. NGO A, Representative), especially external
trafficking from Ghana.
During the interviews, a wide consensus at the macro- and meso-level
was found that most people in the various communities possess knowledge
about the existence of laws against trafficking. However, there were
exceptions e.g. extremely isolated communities.
At the micro-level it, was generally believed that most of the people in
the Ghanaian communities know about anti-trafficking law, but that some
people chose to send children regardless of this knowledge. But, it was also
stated that there are people not familiar with this legislation and that have no
idea. These results correspond with both the statements of macro- and
meso-levels helping to confirm their assumptions.
It was largely considered that the law enforcement did not have
adequate knowledge about the law or about trafficking. There was also a
request for more police activity in the communities and for more education
of both of the police and the general population concerning the law.

6.1.2 Culture of sending

Today Ghana provides a conducive socio-economic environment that

benefits and nurtures the trafficking phenomenon. The concept of children
helping their parents or guardians after school, during weekends and on
vacations has been a Ghanaian custom since long, acceptable as a means of
fostering children into responsible adulthood. But, if the purpose of this
cultural practice was benign from the beginning, today it has developed into
sending children away with strangers to perform hard physical labour within
the fishing industry, agriculture or to work as prostitutes.
The contemporary practice of sending away children with extended
family or even total strangers to perform hazardous work, under the
pretence of helping their parents, is drastically different from the traditional
practices and definitely not in the best interest of the child.
All interviewed, especially the ministries at macro-level, regarded one
of the most difficult things considering trafficking in children, to be
defining if a case indeed constitutes trafficking. This is difficult in general,
but the Ghanaian culture of sending the children away to extended family
make it even more complicated (e.g. NGO A, Representative). The need for
a better way of drawing the line between cultural practices and trafficking
was stressed as better regulations on what shall be done in trafficking cases
(Ministry B, Senior Official)
The system of extended family has with modernity developed into a
harmful practice, where the purpose of care-taking has been substituted for

40
exploitation. One reason for this development, according to interviewed at
both on macro- and meso-level, is that people today are more interested in
their nuclear family, their own identity, success and future (e.g. NGO D,
Senior representative). This focus on money and lack of care also exists
within extended families and relatives often abuse the children as a result.
While parents do not question this as the system is well established.
Today Ghana is built upon two different social and legal systems, which
are interconnected, but still distinct, criminal law and customary law. The
practices of sending away children is to some extent so well developed that
it is accepted as customary law, i.e. not even considered illegal in the
customary part of the Ghanaian legal system. This hinders the effectiveness
of the implementation of laws. And as trafficking is difficult to define by
the national law, this severely blurs the legal definition.
Contemporary society still maintains traditional practices, and although
traditional social relationships have been transformed to fit modern
demands, the practices persist. According to the macro- and meso-level
agencies, the culture of sending away children to extended family is one of
the most decisive root causes to the spread of human trafficking in Ghana.

6.1.3 Poverty

Poverty as an underlying cause of trafficking has been given great emphasis

in theoretical and empirical studies, and it should come as no surprise that it
was pronounced even in Ghana, even if factors were given similar or greater
emphasis. Similar patterns as observed elsewhere are also present in Ghana.
The poor are more vulnerable and tend to have more children as a social
security measure in Ghana.
Poverty was mentioned by interviewed at all levels. As expected,
parents put emphasise on poverty, or lack of employment opportunities, as a
reason for sending away children. But their testimonies are backed up by
other interviews at macro- and meso-level, as well as the mere fact that
Ghana is a very poor country.
But similarly to lack of education it could also be seen that poverty was
neither a necessary or sufficient cause for trafficking. Some parents sell
their children to buy clothing or jewellery, rather than food.
This does not mean that poverty alleviation is not vital in the fight
against trafficking, as well as serving an important purpose in itself. Efforts
in developing possibilities in the communities are a good investment in the
fight against trafficking. One type of commendable projects that are being
carried out in Ghana is micro-credits through NGOs (e.g. NGO C,
Representative 2). Micro-credit assistance is given both to parents deemed
to being in risk groups of trafficking children, and traffickers, often with
links to the fishing and agricultural sectors. They are provided with credits
to buy equipment, thereby decreasing the demand for cheap child labour.

41
 Micro-credits to parents serve a similar purpose decreasing the reliance
on children as social safety nets at old age. Although micro-credits are no
simple fixes against poverty and certainly not to trafficking, they provide a
step in the right direction.
The teacher stated that one important measure to take in the prevention
of these practices is to focus on empowerment in the communities. The
adults lack money, education and feeling of being empowered. When
traffickers come along with money and solutions, they feel that they have no
choice. If the adults felt that they had possibilities to earn money, the
balance of power would shift in their favour.
Another problem that relates to poverty is the problems with family
planning in Ghana. As children are often the only social security available,
children are perceived as a necessity, even if they cannot be properly cared
for. According to some macro- and meso-level agencies, it is even a status
symbol in rural communities to have many children (e.g. Judicial agency,
Senior official).
The prestige of having a lot of children especially applies for rural
women. And as there is not much else for women to gain prestige from in
these communities, childbearing is seen as a goal in itself. And prestige is
becoming more important with the modernisation. To alleviate this
situation, there is a need of offering other forms of social security and status
symbols than children, especially for women. In order to change views of
what is prestigious, there is a need for role models (group interview with
seven ex-trafficked children), someone or something to look up to and gain
inspiration from.

6.2 Enforcement problems

The most pronounced reasons given in the interviews as to why legislation

against child trafficking is not properly enforced in Ghana were stated as
being legal inconsistency, lack of education, corruption among law
enforcement, and lack of coordination.

6.2.1 Inconsistency

There are legal inconsistencies concerning child trafficking in Ghana, both

in terms of the legal framework and law enforcement. The problem of
inconsistency of the legal framework is partly attributed weak definitions.
At the macro- and meso-level lack of clear definitions of trafficking and
traffickers were seen as a problem, especially given the traditional practices
discussed above, making it even harder to distinguish the intertwined
practices. It becomes difficult not only for the ministers and law
enforcement, but also for parents, fishermen and the general population.

42
 The lack of punishment when convicted of trafficking is central to this
problem (e.g. NGO D, Senior official), decreasing the risk associated with
sending away children or buying children. It is also common knowledge
that the lack of social security for the children if the parents are imprisoned,
ensures that the law is lenient in many cases. That very few cases are
subject to investigation is also well known in the society.
At the meso-level the extent of enforcement was the most difficult
question to answer. The general sentiment was that the law should be
implemented, for everyone, but concerns were raised about the situation of
the children. Some of the NGOs thought it was better to educate the parents
instead of sending them to jail for breaking the Anti-trafficking law, this as
the phenomena is too rooted in the culture and too many people where
considered not knowing it is wrong (NGO C, Representaive 2). Others
argued that if the children have a social network parents should go to jail,
but if not they should not be convicted (e.g. NGO A, Representative). Yet
other NGOs argued for the need of enforcement. And if the parents knew
they might end up in jail they would think twice before sending away their
children with strangers (NGO D, Senior representative).
Among interviewed at the micro-level it was equally stressed that the
traffickers should be imprisoned, the issue was more difficult with the
parents. One of the children stated that the parents need to be more
responsible concerning their children. The teacher drew a line between
educated and illiterate parents, stating that the illiterate have a slim chance
of knowing the law and should be treated leniently. This argumentation
touches upon the distinction of not knowing because you have no chance of
knowing or not knowing because you did not care to find out.

6.2.2 Lack of education

It was considered among the macro-level agencies, except the senior

officials of the law enforcement, that the police are not sufficiently educated
on the trafficking phenomenon and the law. This becomes a problem since
not possessing adequate knowledge about one’s own work can impede
professional moral and initiative.
Many professional groups on macro-level, working with or for children, and
law enforcement, both on central and local administrations, was considered
to lack sufficient training on laws protecting children in Ghana, and to an
even lesser extent how to identify trafficking in children.
Stated was also that the police do not know the law in general, only the
main features, but not details. Some NGOs stated that the police do not
possess enough information, but added that it is easily available to them, so
they should know (NGO C, Representative 1). But if lack of proper
education and training hampers professional commitment in the first place,
people will be less likely to search for more information.

43
 It was in the general opinion of the meso-level that if the law
enforcement agencies had enough education and knew the law, prosecution
would not be a problem. But even the existing law has not been firmly
established within the enforcement agencies (NGO B, Senior
Representative), causing enormous problem. Similarly to the judicial
agency, an NGO explained that there is a need for coordination between the
judicial and law enforcement agencies (NGO A, Representative). The
process may be complicated but in order to function more efficiently they
need to consult each other. According to this NGO, the judicial agency
should be allowed to know about the existence of cases from beginning, so
long it does not interfere with the investigation. The need for professional
prosecutors to visit the communities where expressed too, in order to get a
better understanding of cases at the grass roots level.
More educated law enforcement officers were requested, as an important
step in the fight against trafficking and for implementation of the law.
According to all interviews there is a need for education, a more efficient
legal process and improved network building. Agreed in all interviews was
also that the court process is too slow, and that there is a severe need of
education concerning human trafficking, regarding how to identify and
combat it, this among all macro-institutions.

6.2.3 Corruption

The prevalence of corruption also makes trafficking more difficult to

combat. Ghanaian courts have acted with increased autonomy under the
1992 constitution, but corruption remains a problem. According to the
judicial agency, one of the main problems in the fight against trafficking of
human beings is the fact that law enforcement is very corrupt. Expressed
was also the problem with corruption within the own organisation, but that
the phenomenon was deemed especially severe in law enforcement.
Corruption generally occurs when people with power have little income
and is linked to poverty and lack of development. But corruption is also a
cultural phenomenon, and cannot be solved simply by raising the salaries of
the corrupt. In July 2010 law enforcement officers got a substantial pay
raise with the expressed purpose of fighting corruption, however, it had
limited, if any, impact on corruption. The behaviour was entrenched and
continued. Future increase in wages must be part of a more concerted effort
to get rid of corruption.
Also the NGOs agreed on the high levels of corruption within law
enforcement (e.g. NGO A, representative). Many pointed out that it harms
the confidence in enforcement agencies dramatically, and that people
disrespects them as a consequence. Traffickers know that they possess
power over the police as they can buy them off. Sometimes the police do
not even wait for the accused to give them an offer, they just name a price
(Discussion with general population).

44
 Right now the power within the police force is balanced in the wrong
way. Today power does not rest within their profession and knowledge
about the law, rather with the uniform and words “police officer” attached
to it, to be used at their own discretion. Better education of the police is
needed even for these reasons. But such reforms will take a lot of time and
resources, as the culture of corruption seems to be well entrenched.

6.2.4 Coordination problems

Another serious problem is the lack of coordination between the law

enforcement agencies and the judicial agencies. Work is done almost
without communication between those involved in the enforcement process.
Judicial agencies are by law prevented from taking part in the
investigation, but the problem is that they are the ones who possess the
knowledge necessary for processing a case where trafficking is suspected.
Meanwhile, the law enforcement agencies leading investigations lack the
knowledge about what to look for in order to prepare a case for the judicial
process (Judicial agency, Senior official). But as the judicial agencies are
seldom informed about the existence of a new case, they cannot assist by
providing guidelines as to what information might be needed. All
interviewed stressed the need of strengthening the networking capabilities
for more efficient enforcement. The coordination among the various
government agencies involved with prevention of trafficking and children’s
rights need to be strengthened and made more coherent to be able to really
work against trafficking.
Different partnerships have been established in between NGOs, and
between NGOs and governmental institutions, which is crucial to combat
trafficking in a comprehensive way.

6.3 Need of a Comprehensive Approach

The argumentation on root causes of trafficking in the international debate

often revolves around lack of income and education. These problems were
also given much attention in the interviews. But not necessarily in the same
context as is conventional thought of. Often addressed factors such as lack
of education and ignorance in the general population are very relevant in
explaining the prevalence of trafficking in Ghana.
Poverty is a major reason, but cannot be seen as fixed, as also people
with money send away their children to work in order to improve their
lifestyle. Also education is a major root cause, but it cannot be forgotten that
one of the main recruitment areas are the schools and universities.
As this study is concerned with children of both sexes, the gender
perspective was not expected to be given a large role in the interviews and

45
findings from Ghana. However some findings are in lines with the
assumptions associated with this perspective. Women in rural areas tend to
suffer from societal discrimination. The traditional role of women promotes
childbearing which spills over into child trafficking.
Another problem out in the rural communities, according to the
interviewed children, is teenage pregnancy. It is very common while not
socially accepted on part of the girl. The girl is thrown out of the
community and needs to cater for herself and any potential unborn baby.
She then becomes an easy victim for the traffickers.
Even though many of the observations falls neatly into the categories
that form parts of the contemporary debate it is also clear that most findings
also fit more than one category. Corruption is both a consequence of lack of
development and a cultural phenomenon. The increase of police wages is an
illustrative example of how this failed. Even though police got 600 cedis
more corruption continued as it was simply a matter of poverty but
culturally entrenched. Similarly future efforts to tackle child trafficking in
Ghana would benefit from a comprehensive approach to the problem.
The large and extended family identities in the rural areas are both
consequences of cultural practices and entrenched roles based on gender.
Problems with legal enforcement is a problem that spans insufficient
funding, lack of education, acceptance of cultural practices, and lack of
legal definition.
Moreover the root causes were not given the same priority in this field
study as in the established discourse. The cultural perspective was given
much greater emphasis in this study than in the international debate. The
culture of sending was given a central position in the interviews at all levels.
And even though the results from this case study should not be generalised,
i.e. it cannot be claimed that traditional practices of sending is vital for child
trafficking everywhere, the relative importance ascribed to these practices in
Ghana should still highlights the need for further field studies to be
conducted.

46
7 Conclusions and
recommendations

This study asked about the root causes of child trafficking in Ghana and
why legal enforcement does not seem to work there. On the root causes
ignorance and lack of education, the culture of sending children within the
culture of sending children to extended family, poverty, illiteracy and the
lack of family planning, were cited as important causes. And the main
reasons why the laws are not well implemented in Ghana was considered to
be lack of education and problems of corruption within law enforcement,
lack of cooperation between and within the different levels among
government agencies. There is also a misallocation of power between the
macro- and meso-level, as it is the latter that initiates cooperation.
In order to efficiently address the root causes of trafficking, as well as
strengthening enforcement, there is a need for a comprehensive approach to
trafficking. Combating child trafficking is not simply a question of poverty
alleviation or empowerment of women, but must be a concerted effort to
tackle the problem in its own right, and not as a symptom of other societal
ills. Anti-trafficking should become an integrated part in development and
educational policies. This may seem highly ambitious, but given the long
term socio-economic problems associated with child trafficking, it will
probably be even more expensive not to take concerted measures.
There evidently exists a problem with identifying trafficking and
traffickers in Ghana. This can partly be attributed to the country's own
legislation. The Ghanaian Human Trafficking Act (2005) draws heavily on
the Palermo Protocol (United Nations 2000), but there are some substantial
differences. The Palermo protocol defines trafficking of human beings as:
[…] the recruitment, transportation, transfer[…] of persons by means of the
threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability (United
Nations, Article 3a). A definition that is almost identical to the one in
Ghana's Human Trafficking Act (2005, Article 1), but there are details
which amount to a substantial difference.
The Ghanaian Human Trafficking Act addresses the trafficking of
children by stating: ”Where children are trafficked, the consent of the child,
parents or guardian of the child cannot be used as a defence [...],
regardless of [...] abuse of power, fraud or deception on the part of the
trafficker or whether the vulnerability of the child was taken advantage of”
(Human Trafficking Act 2005, Article 1, Subparagraph 4). This definition
of child trafficking, and disregard for consent in the case of children, are

47
similar to Article 3a) and 3b) of the Palermo protocol. However the
Protocol’s Article 3c) states in addition to this that: “The recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of
exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does
not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article”.
As the Act excludes this purpose-based definition it potentially limits the
ability of judicial authorities to prosecute perpetrators, as proof is required
of initial use of illegal means in the trafficking process. The Palermo
protocol only requires that the purpose is exploitation. The omission of this
in the Trafficking Act makes the definition of “deception”, “force”,
“harbouring” or “exploitation of vulnerability” more ambiguous.
But if the Palermo protocol would be ratified by the Ghanaian
government, Article 3 c) would make the Ghanaian sending system illegal
by national law. This may in fact be one reason why Ghana has not ratified
the Palermo protocol, though generally active in fighting trafficking.
There is a clear normative dimension in recommending the change of
cultural practices by law, such as ratifying the Palermo Protocol. And some
may argue that neither foreign observers or the national government should
interfere in cultural practices, regardless of the harm trafficking is doing.
But the problem with such argumentation is that cultural practices
constantly change. As shown above, exploitation was never the original
design of the culture of sending people, but it has gradually developed into
the kind of exploitation associated with trafficking. If the original purpose
has been lost and become exploitation without any regard for the children
involved, there are no reasons to allowing it to be legal even if culturally
sanctioned. Cultural practices sometimes needs to and do change for the
better, Sweden does no longer burn witches, Catalonia has just banned bull
fighting, and Ghana does not let its village chief decide in cases of murder.
Education on the harms done by these cultural practice is important, but
there is a special need for sensitization, to convince people about harms of
child trafficking and make them stakeholders in combating it. In order to
change the culture it is very important that every community understands
the dangers of child trafficking. And also what it does to children through
lack education and adequate care and how their future can change if they do
get those things. There is not enough awareness about the provisions and
principles of the Ghanaian law in many parts of the society. And neither
adults nor children know about their rights. In the interviews it also became
evident that ignorance about trafficking also extends to the agencies meant
to combat the phenomenon.
Law enforcers are largely unfamiliar with both the child protection laws
and the anti-trafficking laws. There is a need in Ghana to educate both the
population and the people in charge about the law and their rights. It is also
needed to increase efforts in prosecuting and convicting traffickers.
Therefore it is very important to educate the police better, both initially
during police training and continuously as new laws are enacted. Law
enforcement officers need to know about the consequences of trafficking.

48
Training and education on the law not only strengthens the professionalism
of law enforcers, but also sensitization within law enforcement will also
decrease incentives for corruption.
There is an urgent need for communication between government
agencies, law enforcement could be far more efficient if law enforcement
agencies would inquire the judicial agencies what information is needed in
order to try specific cases. Networking between these agencies would not
only make law enforcement more efficient, but may also limit the
possibilities for corruption. If the existence of cases is known to the judicial
agency, a monitoring element is introduced and the number of cases that
“disappear” may be reduced.
Cooperation between government and NGOs in Ghana works quite well.
The problem here is that the NGOs are cooperating with the governmental
institutions rather than the other way around. This imbalance in also
translates to a misallocation of power between the two levels, a distortion
which has implication on the whole society. The government needs to
empower itself to legitimise its position in society. If the meso-level
continues to stand above the macro-level on a power scale when it comes to
combat trafficking, the people will turn to other authorities, NGOs, village
heads, or traditions.
Ability to enforce, both when it comes to institution building and
control, is intimately linked to relations of power. Due to the lack of
economic and educational resources the government is not able to stand
above the meso-level of NGOs on a scale of power. But they should be able
to take charge of action plans, educational projects and sensitization, and be
the initiator of cooperation with the meso-level. The capabilities of the
government are too weak in comparison to that of the NGOs and therefore
the balance of power is accentuated in the wrong place.
Although established to some extent there is also a greater need for
partnership between the meso- and micro-levels, but especially between
macro- and micro-levels. National policy-makers are in great need of
ensuring effective evaluation of implementation at the grass-root level, and
a strong relation with local levels is significant. There should be annual
inspections to areas child labour is common, information easily obtained
from NGOs. Furthermore, the partnership between the government and the
people can be done through trust building, education and sensitization, and
an establishing popular commitment towards civil responsibility.
Trafficking in children remains an enormous problem in Ghana, rooted
in lack of education, ignorance, poverty and cultural practices that have
become exploitative. It is also made worse by weak enforcement, which in
turn can be attributed to inconsistencies within the national legislation, lack
of knowledge and rampant corruption within law enforcement, as well as
lack of coordination between agencies and lack of governmental initiative to
cooperation. Unless concerted efforts are made to change this situation,
trafficking in children will likely remain a problem in Ghana for a long time
to come.

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8 Executive Summary

Since the UN Convention of 1949 the legal framework to combat human

trafficking has developed at all levels, particularly during the recent decade.
The most capital protocol made so far is the so called Palermo Protocol,
which helped to give a legal definition of trafficking and provided a
framework that could serve as a benchmark for national legislation and
action against trafficking. At the local level, government bodies and civil
society are struggling with both the supply and the demand side of
trafficking. However, despite concerted efforts, this trade in people has not
only persisted, but flourished. Today, the phenomenon has become well
established and is widely recognized as the slavery of our time.
This study focuses on child trafficking. The conditions of trafficked
children are abysmal by any standard, with hard and often dangerous labour
under harsh living conditions. But the consequences of child trafficking
does not stop with the physical and psychological ill treatment of children, it
also has wider, long term socio-economic implications.
Much research has been conducted on how to refine legal tools against
trafficking, but research on the causes of trafficking are thin by comparison.
Most of the available work on root causes, either test certain hypotheses
taking particular perspectives for granted. These often originate from well-
established theoretical traditions, e.g. Feminism and Marxism. As a
consequence, very few attempts have been made to explore trafficking as a
phenomenon in its own right. This study aims to alleviate that shortage by
exploring the root causes of trafficking through qualitative interviews within
a field study. More specifically, the study explores the roots causes of
trafficking by assessing the situation of child trafficking in Ghana.

The main research question of this study is: What are the root causes of
child trafficking in Ghana?

It needs to be point out that the occurrence of child trafficking in Ghana

cannot be ascribed to a lack of formal legal provisions. Ghana has enacted a
series of laws and established several agencies specifically to combat
trafficking in humans, both as regards trafficking in adults and children.

Therefore, the main question is complemented by asking: Why are laws

specially designed to combat trafficking in Ghana not adequately enforced?

The problem with legal enforcement and efficiency of prevention is

intimately linked to the root causes of trafficking. Problems with

50
enforcement in itself may originate from the same causes as trafficking, e.g.
lack of education, poverty, or cultural aspects. And if trafficking remains
prevalent despite legal provisions then inadequate enforcement is a potential
root cause in itself.
The objective is to analyse already existing strategies in preventing and
protecting the victims, prosecuting the offenders, making partnerships and
implementing the national laws within the subject-matter. The exploitation
of children in Ghana is quite common and therefore it is important to
highlight the problem and put a lot of resources into finding out why this is
happening and how it can be prevented. The aim of this study is to
contribute with suggestions and policy recommendations for future work in
combating this abominable crime.
Ghana was chosen as a case study for a number of reasons. First, West
Africa is one of the most prominent sending regions. Second, Ghana has
problems with both internal and external trafficking and is both a sending,
transit and receiving country capturing many aspects of this
multidimensional problem.
There exists no coherent theory on the root causes of the trafficking of
human beings. Instead, thoughts on the causes of trafficking come from a
variety of different theoretical and methodological traditions. Often viewed
through the lenses of each respective tradition and within certain frames,
either as a crime against humanity or a manifestation of male dominance
over women, trafficking is often treated as theoretically ad hoc or an
extreme of other phenomena, such as migration, child labour or prostitution.
The theoretical literature was divided into four categories, meant to
capture the main arguments of a theoretical perspective. First of all there has
been a tendency to treat trafficking as any criminal activity, with little
overall concern for the root causes, here called the “Legislation Approach”.
A prominent role has been given to poverty in the contemporary discourse,
but poverty is multifaceted and can mean lack of income, education or
employment, these aspects are together called the “Development
Perspective”. Mainly focusing on trafficking for sexual purposes the role of
patriarchal structures as a cause of trafficking has also gained a lot of
attention, this is called the “Gender Perspective”. Though given a much
more marginalised role in the contemporary discourse, specific cultural
settings has also been highlighted as a cause of trafficking, this is called the
“Culture Perspective”. These perspectives and approaches constitute the
theoretical framework of this study.
The purpose of this study is not to challenge existing theoretical
perspectives on the root causes of human trafficking, but to complement
them. This will be done through a case study of the child trafficking
situation in Ghana. More specifically, the study attempts to find
explanations to why child trafficking is such an inveterate problem in Ghana
despite that efforts have been made, through legislation and institution
building, to combat it.

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 The study is based on qualitative research methodology as this was most
suitable for the type of data mining required. The data collection was
conducted mainly by individual interviews, complemented by some group
interviews.
A set of open questions were established beforehand, although
standardised, they were aimed at being open and broad to enable the
greatest possible independence for the interviewed individual. The main
advantage of such questions is the coherence, continuity and comparability
of the result. But as flexibility was needed in order to respond to specific
situations as they appear, follow up questions were used to obtain further
information.
Every representative, of an agency or organisation, was asked to give
their opinion in experience of their work, and not through their positions.
This in order to find their personal opinions and to avoid getting answers
that corresponded to mere official positions.
The most systematic and methodologically correct way to gather data
was to divide the interviews into sets of populations, organisations and
communities that are directly involved with child trafficking at some stage
of the process. The study populations were divided into three sub-
categories; governmental agencies, non-governmental organisations and
private citizens, in their turn representing three different levels of analysis
being involved macro-, meso- and micro-level of the trafficking problem.
The most important findings from the interviews was the emphasis on
lack of knowledge, poverty among the people, endemic corruption within
law enforcement and the continuation of the Ghanaian culture of sending
away children.
Both officials within government agencies and NGOs stressed the
continuous lack of knowledge. Not so much about what constitutes child
trafficking as a phenomenon, but what the legal and societal consequences
of trafficking were. This lack of knowledge was not just common among
ordinary citizens, but even more importantly among law enforcement. Lack
of knowledge is intimately linked with lack of education, but they should
not be confused. University campuses are often fertile recruitment ground
for trafficking.
Poverty manifested itself by lack of opportunity for employment in rural
areas, this was especially emphasised by parents who had trafficked
children. The demand for cheap labour among the fishing communities, a
destination for much of the child trafficking in Ghana, also has its roots in
poverty. Lack of education and resources to improve enforcement also, at
least to a certain extent, has a background in poverty. Though, as one
ministry official pointed out, poverty is sometimes used as an excuse by
parents, as selling ones children can often satisfy wants as much as needs.
Corruption among law enforcement was seen as a major problem. Not
only does corruption mean that many traffickers never get arrested or that
cases gets lost on the way to prosecution, it also erodes the confidence in
law enforcement and legitimacy of laws. This creates further obstacles in

52
the fight against trafficking, and is a strong contributing factor to its
prevalence.
The lack of coordination in between government agencies, and between
government agencies and NGOs, was also stressed as a problem. Law
enforcement does not inform the judicial agencies about the existence of
cases, which becomes a major problem since it is these judicial agencies
that have the knowledge on how cases should be adequately processed. The
coordination between government and NGOs work fairly well. But the
problem here is the skewed power relationship between the NGOs and
government, in the sense that NGOs take the initiative towards cooperation
and education efforts, while the government participates. This lack of
initiative transfers power and responsibility away from the elected
government, which risks giving them a lesser stake in the fight against child
trafficking.
Through the interviews the Ghanaian culture of sending away children
to extended family also emerged as a pronounced hindrance to efficiently
combat trafficking. Historically children were sent to extended family in
times when their own parents could not cater for them or when the relatives
needed work force. The children in return got, at least in theory, food,
shelter and care. Today this practice has been distorted into pure
exploitation, as the children perform hard physical labour and are often
subject to abuse, under extremely harsh living conditions. Furthermore, the
practice is no longer confined to extended family alone, but often to
strangers or professional traffickers. But even though the practice has
changed it is still widely considered to be legitimate.
Many of the root causes stressed in the interviews answered well to the
existing theoretical perspectives on trafficking. Poverty was stressed as a
root cause, as was the lack of education. Lack of legal enforcement can also
be seen as a vital root cause of trafficking. In regards to problems with
enforcement the importance of clearer legislation was highlighted, as was
the lack of education and corruption among law enforcers. From a
theoretical point of view it is evident that most problems fit several of the
various perspectives simultaneously.
In order to efficiently address the root causes of trafficking, as well as
strengthening enforcement, there is a need for a comprehensive approach to
trafficking. Combating child trafficking is not simply a question of poverty
alleviation or empowerment of women, but must be a concerted effort to
tackle the problem in its own right, and not as a symptom of other societal
ills. Anti-trafficking should become an integrated part in development and
educational policies. This may seem highly ambitious, but given the long
term socio-economic problems associated with child trafficking, it will
probably be even more expensive not to take concerted measures.
More specifically, this study identifies the enactment of the Palermo
protocol as an important step to identify traffickers in Ghana. The protocol
gives a far clearer definition of trafficking and traffickers than the current
Ghanaian Trafficking Act. The problem with an enactment is that the

53
protocol would make the cultural practice of sending children to extended
families illegal. But as this practice has been distorted into exploitation, then
it should no longer be excepted from the law.
Education efforts concerning the exploitative nature of this distorted
culture as well as legal provisions against trafficking and the rights of
children, should be strengthened, for adults and children alike. This should
be coupled with development efforts, such as micro-credits and creation of
employment. Education also plays a key role to improve enforcement as
even police and government agencies lack vital knowledge in how to
identify and prepare cases of trafficking. Education also serves to empower
the police as professionals and reduce corruption.
Coordination between government agencies is badly needed to more
efficiently process legal cases and to create checks and balances that may
help limit corruption. Further cooperation between government agencies
and NGOs is also needed, but this must be led by government. This in order
to empower government and give it legitimacy in the issue.
Trafficking in children remains an enormous problem in Ghana, rooted
in lack of education, ignorance, poverty and cultural practices that have
become exploitative. It is also made worse by weak enforcement, which in
turn can be attributed to inconsistencies within the national legislation, lack
of knowledge and rampant corruption within law enforcement, as well as
lack of coordination between agencies and lack of governmental initiative to
cooperation. Unless concerted efforts are made to change this situation,
trafficking in children will likely remain a problem in Ghana for a long time
to come.

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