The Executive Director of the Network for Community Planning and Development (NECPAD), Paul Asamoah Kukwaw has called for continuous labour inspection to reduce child trafficking.
According to Mr. Asamoah, it is also necessary to concentrate on informal sector organizations, which he believes is a major child trafficking scene.
Mr. Asamoah made the appeal while speaking at a workshop on the theme, “Sustainable nets – Building a sustainable Protection Network to get rid of child labour as a result of Human Trafficking on the Volta Lake.”
He noted that they have partners to intervene to help implement a 30-month interventions dubbed “Sustainable NetsProject”, which is to contribute to the clearance of child labor which rises from human trafficking in the fishing sector of the country.
In Mr. Asamoah’s view, the very trafficking occurs most in the informal sector thus “more inspectors are needed in the labour Department to conduct a series of inspections in the informal sector.”
He then encouraged the government through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to get more equipment to the labour Department to train and help labour inspectors to go to these informal sectors to conduct inspections.
According to him, the Department says they have an unlimited number of staff who can help with strict inspections.
“We are looking at building a network, eliminating child labor, which results from human trafficking, and focusing on the Volta lake. Even though we are focusing on Volta Lake, we are also mindful of where these children are sourced from and their destination,” he add.
Fortunately, the NECPAD has done a project in some six regions such as Greater Accra, Oti, Volta, Western, Bono East, and Central to ease child trafficking due to some informal sectors such as cocoa, mining, and fishing.
He continued that NECPAD and its partners use community radio and information centers to disseminate information to create awareness in 30 communities on child labour, and child trafficking.
Mr. Asamoah said over a hundred children were identified who were in child labor, and trafficking on the Volta lake.
He thought of it to have a “sustainable livelihood scheme” to update themselves and stop children from going back to the lake.
“We provided them with counseling, reintegration and sent them to their families instead of putting them in shelters of feeding them, we decided to give them skills in apprenticeship and other vocational training,” he said.
