FOUR HELD OVER CHILD TRAFFICKING (PAGE 14)

THE Western Regional Police Command has arrested four mini-buses loaded with 155 children from Ekumfi-Immuna, near Mankessim in the Central Region, who were allegedly being sent to work in the fishing and cocoa industries along the coast of Anlotuape New-Town in Cote d’Ivoire.
The latest arrest follows a similar one a few days ago involving five suspected child traffickers from Garu. The children were between the ages of seven and 18.
In what looked like the slave cargoes of the past, more than 47 children were packed in each of the four mini-buses that were registered to carry only 15 passengers.
Almost all the children were holding identity cards in English or French, which they claimed were issued to them by teachers in their schools at a cost of GH¢2 to enable them to travel across the border to Cote d’Ivoire.
The vehicles they were travelling on had only five small bags and about 88 locally made grass mats, which the drivers claimed were for the children.
The drivers of the buses were Anthony Atubrah, Mohammed Mamude, Faisal Etsie and Paul Williams. When questioned by the police, the drivers said the children did not pay them and that they were taking them to their parents in Half-Assini, where they expected to be paid by their parents.
But one of the drivers, Mamude, said he was taking the children to a village between the Elubo border and New Town, where the children would be met by their escorts to various fishing and farming communities in Cote d'Ivoire.
Asked why they decided to take the risk of transporting the children in such unsafe manner if they had no vested interest in them, they said that was what they had been doing over the years.
“They go there, work and get some money for themselves, and pay their school fees and buy uniforms. Since this is the fishing season in Cote d'Ivoire, they will get work to do,” the drivers claimed.
However, some of the children told newsmen that the weekend trip was their first time and that they were going to work with fishermen and help fishmongers smoke their fish in Cote d’Ivoire and Half Assini areas.
Briefing the media, the Western Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, said it was during a surprise check that the vehicles were intercepted and found to be overloaded with the children.
He said with the current attention given to issues of child trafficking and child labour, he and his men were very much alert.
He said at the moment the police were on the preliminary stage of their investigation and advised people with similar intentions to desist from it and rather ensure that the future leaders of the country were not sold into slavery.
Meanwhile, the children have been given to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service for them to be transferred the Department of Social Welfare.