The International Justice Mission (IJM) has donated a Toyota Hiace mini bus to the Anti Human Trafficking Unit of the Eastern Regional Police Command of the Ghana Police Service to fight increasing human trafficking activities in the region.
The donation by IJM, a none governmental organization fighting against human trafficking and child labour, follows Starr News expose’ on sex trafficking activities in Koforidua, Eastern regional capital of Ghana through a syndicate of some Ghanaian and Nigerian traffickers who traffick young female Nigerians to Ghana under the pretext of giving them jobs in restaurants and hotels, only to be sexually exploited on arrival.
According to the Director of operations at IJM Ghana, Miss Anita Budu, her department has since 2016 been working closely with the Police Anti Human Trafficking Unit to fight the menace of human trafficking however observed the police lacks logistics .
” IJM today we are donating a vehicle to the Ghana Police Service and it is really to support their work , we work with the Ghana Police Service to tackle issues of trafficking and so our hope is that this is a resource that will support the Ghana Police Service in this work”.
“Since 2016 we have been working with the anti human trafficking unit and the Ghana police service here to rescue children and so we have been able to rescue a number of children that haven cases taken to court and also there have been convictions and so the work has really progressed with the Ghana police service and also the Attorney General’s office and the department of social welfare we’ve really been able to see good progress and we are impressed with that we know they will continue the good work as we move forward in the years ahead,” she said.
The Eastern Regional Police Commander DCOP Anderson Fosu Ackah who received the donated vehicle on behalf of the Police anti human trafficking unit said the complexities of investigating human trafficking require logistics such as anonymous vehicles to move investigators around and transport victims .
“The IJM has been in partnership with the Ghana police service over the years to fight human trafficking in Ghana so they looking at the work we are doing they deem it fit to support in the way of transport because when they rescue they have to bring the victims and send them to court as well and all this require the use of vehicle to do it so it a great intervention for us,” he said.
He further explained that human trafficking is a serious challenge that needs to be properly addressed since it poses a threat to society or a country calling on the general public to collaborate with Police smoke out the suspects.
“We should all help to fight against human trafficking since It doesn’t help the society , it doesn’t help the victims, it doesn’t help the country as a whole because people are not given the chance to develop their own potentials , they may take them very young and even some of them don’t have access to school ,so is a challenge to all of us to speak against it , when the victims grow up and have nothing doing they could be a threat to society and they could be a national threat because most of them might not know what to do at certain ages of their lives so when you see it alert the police”.
Source : Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah