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News & Updates

Severe Toll on Mental and Physical Health of Trafficked Children in Ghana¹

March 2005

The high level of trauma suffered by children trafficked for forced labour into fishing communities in Yeji in Ghana, has resulted in major physical and mental health problems for the victims, according to IOM.

IOM has so far rescued 537 children who had been sold by their impoverished parents to fishermen in Yeji, on the northern shores of Lake Volta. In February 2005, a group of 107 children were rescued and have since spent time trying to recover from their ordeals in a rehabilitation centre in Accra before being reunited with their parents at the end of the month.

Although most of the children have now been declared medically fit to return home and attend school, they will all need a minimum of two years of constant medical evaluations and treatment to fully recover. The most severe illnesses affecting the children are bilharzia, malaria, amoebiasis and chronic eye, stomach and head ailments. In addition, there is evidence of post-traumatic stress disorders, reflecting the acute trauma the children suffered during their servitude. As a result, they will need extensive counseling.

Boys were often forced to dive into Lake Volta’s muddy and dangerous waters to free tangled nets and worked extremely long hours to cast and retrieve nets. Some have died in the process and almost all were regularly beaten and poorly fed.

For the 430 children who have already been reintegrated into their communities, IOM will be running two mobile clinics to provide primary healthcare services. The trauma the children suffered is still having an impact on their physical and mental health and they will need counselling and medical assistance on a regular basis for some time to come.

IOM is preparing to rescue another group of children shortly, but there is no clear picture of the extent of child trafficking into fishing communities in Ghana. Upon IOM’s request, UNICEF has committed to funding two baseline research studies on child trafficking in the Central and Volta regions, both of which begin in June.

This programme, which is carried out in cooperation with the Ghanaian authorities is funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) of the US State Department.

For further information, please contact: Joseph Rispoli IOM Accra Tel: +233 244 975250 E-mail: jrispoli@iom.int

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¹ Adapted from the 15 April 2005 IOM Press Briefing Notes, http://www.iom.int/en/news/pbn150405.shtml