The Government of Ghana does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore Ghana remained on Tier 2. These efforts included increasing trafficking investigations, prosecutions, and convictions, and identifying and referring more trafficking victims to services. The government provided trauma-informed training for judicial and law enforcement officials and increased its coordination with civil society on protection and prevention efforts. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government continued its 2017 ban on labor migration to Gulf states, which increased vulnerability to trafficking. Despite reports of fraudulent labor recruiters exploiting Ghanaian victims abroad, the government did not report holding any fraudulent recruiters accountable. The government did not adequately address complicity in trafficking crimes, and it did not amend the anti-trafficking act regulations to remove the option of a fine in lieu of imprisonment in cases where the trafficker was a parent or guardian of a child victim. Efforts to screen vulnerable populations for trafficking indicators such as labor migrants, asylum seekers, and workers on People’s Republic of China (PRC) national-owned fishing vessels, remained inadequate.
As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Ghana, and traffickers exploit victims from Ghana abroad. Traffickers exploit Ghanaian children in forced labor in inland and coastal fishing, domestic service, street hawking, begging, portering, artisanal gold mining, quarrying, herding, and agriculture. Traffickers exploit Ghanaian children and children from other West African countries in forced labor in cocoa. Widespread poverty among cocoa-growing communities, extremely low cocoa prices and small profits for farmers, and lack of educational opportunities contribute to the prevalence of child labor and forced labor in the cocoa sector. Traffickers exploit children as young as four in forced labor in Lake Volta’s fishing industry and use violence and limited access to food to control victims. Traffickers force boys to work in hazardous conditions, including in deep diving, and girls perform work onshore, such as preparing the fish for markets. Women and girls working in the fishing sector are vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation, including sex trafficking. Relatives often send girls via intermediaries to work in harsh conditions in forced labor in domestic work. Children in northern regions of Ghana, whose parents use intermediaries or relatives to send them to work in agriculture in the south during school breaks or the dry season, are vulnerable to forced labor. Observers noted lack of access to education, economic hardship, and high unemployment rates increase vulnerability to human trafficking in Ghana. An NGO reported climate change, including slow-onset events such as drought, exacerbates vulnerability of Ghanaians migrating from northern farming communities to urban centers in search of employment; girls and young women who work as kayayie (head-porters) are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor, often through debt bondage, and men work in exploitative conditions as farm laborers and in mining, including in bonded labor. Women and girls who migrate to southern Ghana also reportedly do so to escape GBV – including female genital mutilation/cutting – and child, early, and forced marriages, increasing vulnerability to trafficking. Traffickers subject girls, and to a lesser extent boys, to sex trafficking in urban areas and mining regions across Ghana. Marginalized sub-groups, such as LGBTQI+ persons and the Fulbe, face widespread discrimination in education, employment, financial services, and housing, increasing vulnerability to trafficking. Stigma, intimidation, and the perceived bias of some police against marginalized communities dissuade survivors from reporting abuse.
Observers allege PRC national-owned and -operated industrial vessels flagged to Ghana, often through shell companies, exploit Ghanaian workers in forced labor; one organization documented cases of abuse, including physical abuse, underpayment or nonpayment of wages, restricted medical care, and poor living conditions, against Ghanaian men aboard these fleets. An NGO estimated 90 percent of industrial fishing vessels operating in Ghana are owned by PRC-based companies. Traffickers operating fishing vessels flagged to Ireland and the United Kingdom also exploit Ghanaian workers in forced labor, allegedly in cooperation with some Ghanaian recruitment agencies. PRC nationals working in Ghana may be in forced labor in the formal and informal mining sectors and in fishing. Cuban government-affiliated professionals, including medical workers, may have been forced to work by the Cuban government. Traffickers exploit foreign national victims in forced labor in online scam operations in Ghana; the traffickers often fraudulently recruit victims online, including through the e-commerce site Qnet. Traffickers exploit Ghanaian and Nigerian women and girls in sex trafficking in Ghana, including in mining regions, border towns, and commercial centers. Traffickers lure Nigerian women and girls to Ghana with the promise of good jobs and coerce them into commercial sex to pay exorbitant debts for transportation and lodging.
Traffickers exploit Ghanaian women and children in forced labor and sex trafficking in the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of West Africa. Informal recruitment agencies continue to operate and facilitate recruitment through informal channels, and some agents use predatory tactics, including high recruitment fees and fraudulent job advertising. Unscrupulous agents recruit Ghanaian men and women seeking employment, transport them through North Africa, and exploit them in sex and labor trafficking in Europe and the Middle East. Traffickers fraudulently recruit and exploit Ghanaian women in the Middle East in domestic servitude using predatory recruitment tactics and informal or fake contracts; upon arrival, traffickers seize their passports and sometimes physically or sexually abuse them. Observers have reported registered and unregistered agents recruit Ghanaian workers and, with the assistance of some immigration or airport officials, facilitate their travel out of the country without the required exit documents.
from 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
