The first 11 of a group of 36 trafficked children to be rescued by
IOM in Ghana this year have arrived safely in the rehabilitation
centre in the capital, Accra.

The six boys and five girls, aged between 5 and 15, had spent
between one and a half and eight years with their
"masters". 

The children, trafficked for forced or bonded labour into
fishing communities in Kete-Krachi and Yeji along the shores of
Ghana's Lake Volta had been sold for little money by impoverished
parents in the belief that the children would be adequately fed,
educated and taught a useful trade.

Instead, the children had been forced to work extremely long
hours by their fishing "masters" on Lake Volta, including doing
heavy and dangerous work such as retrieving nets caught under
water.  While most of the boys are made to work in the fishing
industry, the girls act as cooks, servers and porters.  Very
poorly fed, never paid or sent to school, the children are also
physically and verbally abused by their "masters". 

The 11 children were taken by IOM staff to a government
rehabilitation centre where they will be given counselling, medical
assistance, educational assistance and art therapy over the next
three and a half months by IOM as well as government and local
non-governmental organization (NGO) partners. 

The children will then be reunited with their families and
communities and enrolled into schools or given vocational training
in order to restart their lives. Parents of the trafficked children
will be given micro-credit for income-generating activities so they
can better support their families.  This can include starting
or expanding existing businesses such as selling foodstuffs and
textiles or small restaurants known as "Chop Bars" or supporting
agricultural activities.

IOM staff is also travelling today to Yeji on the northern
shores of Lake Volta where some of the remaining 25 children will
be rescued by the weekend from a life of drudgery and abuse through
extensive negotiations with the fishermen. In return, the fishermen
receive training and micro-credits to help them improve their
fishing techniques or engage in other income-generating activities
absolving the need to use child labour.

Following a subsequent rescue mission in Kete-Krachi in March in
which IOM plans to rescue the rest of the 36 children, IOM will
have rescued a total of 684 children from Lake Volta since it began
the programme in 2002 in collaboration with local NGOs, such as
Friends for Human Development and Partners in Community
Development, and the Ghanaian government. The programme is funded
by the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and
Migration (PRM).

However, since 2008, it has had to limit the number of children
it can rescue to 36 each year in order to provide adequate
reintegration assistance that includes continued medical follow up
and educational assistance, such as mentoring and tutoring. Health
assessments post-rescue usually reveal severe levels of
malnutrition, stunted growth as well as other long-term health,
education and other needs.

The rescue of 36 children last year and the 36 children this
year has been possible due to continued support from PRM and
private donations and sponsorships from the United States and other
countries, including fund-raising initiatives in the United States
by individuals and organizations such as One-is-Greater-than-None
(1>0), Evan Robins and the Metuchen High School in New Jersey,
teachers and students of the Deer Path Middle School and Lake
Forest High School in Illinois, U.S.A., Kids Helping Kids with
Nothing, and Global Giving.

Read more about IOM's counter-trafficking project in Ghana at
class="paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"/jahia/Jahia/lang/en/pid/1666" target="" title=
"">http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/lang/en/pid/1666

For more information please contact:

Jo Rispoli

IOM Accra

Tel: +233.244 975250

E-mail: "mailto:jrispoli@iom.int">jrispoli@iom.int