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Around the world, millions of people are living in bondage. They labor in fields and factories under brutal employers who threaten them with violence if they try to escape.

The ministry of gender, children and social protection has launched a national plan of action to combat human trafficking.

The national plan of action indicates protection, prevention, [prosecution and partnership by all stakeholders through increased public awareness programs to foster deeper understanding the issue while serving as a guide for stakeholders to better implement the human trafficking Act 694 of 2005. 

The meeting was under the auspices of the human trafficking and domestic violence unit of ministry in collaboration with UNICEF.

The minister, hon. Otiko Djaba welcoming participants called for a collective effort by all stakeholders to fight the human trafficking canker which is eating into the very fabric of the society.

Hon. Otiko Djaba further noted that Ghana is among the countries with high slavery index in Africa.

The minister therefore called for constant awareness creation and capacity for stakeholders and the public for better understanding.

The ministry noted its intention to present the action plan to the US embassy for further dialogue.

She also pledged her commitment to find a lasting solution to Kayayei in the country by engaging the KNUST administration to device a trawler for the head porter popularly called kayayei in the local parlance.

A report presented by the ministry indicated that trafficked children work in homes for families that keep them virtually imprisoned. They are forced to work as prostitutes or to beg in the streets, fearful of the consequences if they fail to earn their daily quota. They are women, men, and children of all ages, and they are often held far from home with no money, no connections, and no way to ask for help.

Trafficking has a broad global impact as well. It weakens legitimate economies, fuels violence, threatens public health and safety, shatters families, and shreds the social fabric that is necessary for progress. And it is an affront to our basic values and our fundamental belief that all people everywhere deserve to live and work in safety and dignity.

Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor, a modern-day form of slavery.

The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt 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 or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth [above] shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth [above] have been used.

Human Trafficking in the first ten years of the 21st Century, including reports of human trafficking for forced labor, forced prostitution, debt bondage, slavery and forced marriage, as well as the transfer of a child for purposes of exploitation.

All over the world the unaccompanied children, migrants and the economically disadvantaged are most at risk of suffering this kind of exploitation.