A summit on marine policing aimed at establishing a Volta Regional Command has been held in Kete Krachi in the Oti Region dubbed, “Proactive Lake Patrol” which brought together stakeholders from the Ghana Police Service, the Attorney General’s Department, the Judiciary, chiefs, district assemblies and social welfare workers.
The establishment of a third Marine Police Command in the Volta Region after the Western and Eastern commands in Sekondi-Takoradi and Tema, respectively, is currently at the pilot stage.
The Director of Operations for IJM, Madam Anita Budu, said the organisation went into the area of child trafficking when it first came into Ghana because at the time the mission felt that it was a big problem. She indicated that even though there had been other interventions, the law enforcement piece was needed to see to a more sustainable change.
Madam Anita emphasized that there was the need to strengthen the justice system to deter criminals in the area of human and child trafficking.
“For human trafficking to come to an end, there is the need to enforce the Human Trafficking Act,” she stated, adding that people continued to engage in the crime because they knew they could get away with it.
She further explained that the IJM focused on victim rescue with the police and in collaboration with the media, to ensure that such crimes were brought to the public to serve as a deterrent. She indicated that, from 2015, the IJM in collaboration with the government had rescued over 300 victims, while 189 suspects had been arrested, with 38 convictions.
The summit was held with sponsorship from International Justice for Mission (IJM), a global organisation that protects people in poverty from violence, which has been working with the government since 2015 and has made huge strides in the area of the prevention of human and especially child trafficking on the Volta Lake.
Source : Graphic Online
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