WAGE RUTHLESS WAR AGAINST CHILD TRAFFICKING — PROSPER AGBLOR (PAGE 21, MIRROR, NOV 13, 2010)

From Tim Dzamboe, Ho

The Acting Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Prosper Agblor, has called for a holistic fight against human trafficking in order to bring perpetrators to book.
He said human trafficking was becoming a highly lucrative and exploitative business and that although the police had arrested and prosecuted offenders, there existed a large pool of potential victims rendered vulnerable by extreme poverty and ignorance.
DCOP Agblor said this at the inauguration of an office for a human trafficking unit at the regional police headquarters at Ho.
He said human trafficking was robbing the nation of its human resources which were very crucial for the development of the nation, adding that “the future of our young ones is being destroyed through this selfish, self centred, obnoxious trade which can best be described as modern day slavery.”
According to him, Ghana had become a major source - transit and destination point - for human trafficking and that children and women had become victims of trafficking and had been trafficked both internally and externally to be engaged in sexual exploitation and forced labour, among others.
DCOP Agblor extended gratitude to UNICEF for the support in establishing three more units in the Eastern, Brong Ahafo and Upper West regions with the pledge that the police as an institution will not relent in bringing this inhumane trade to a complete halt.
In a welcoming address read on his behalf, the Volta Regional Police Commander, Reverend/ DCOP David Nenyi Ampah-Bennin, said the inequalities and inequities created by globalisation had led to the migration of the poor to the rich regions.
That, he said, had led to the commercialisation of humanity, which is likened to modern day slavery, through which human beings were prized as commodities and exchanged for money like any other article on the market.
DCOP Ampah-Bennin, therefore, said it was time the law enforcement agencies took the bull by the horn and asked the police to be up and doing and enforce the law without sparing the rod.