Modern-Day Slavery
Distressing items on the nightly news are anything but rare; however, there was one tonight that was particularly brutal. It dealt with child trafficking and its hub in Ghana: a town at the north end of the Volta Lake, Yeji, where fishing is the main industry and children make up a huge part of the workforce.
Children from all over Ghana are sold to fishermen because their parents need money for various reasons. The report started in a town in the south of the country where there are very few children to fill a new school building because their parents have sold them to fishermen in Yeji. The reporter interviewed several women who had sold their children for sums ranging from 300 000 to 500 000 cedis per child. One woman had sold her five children for a total of 2 million cedis. That’s about $250 or 50 bucks per kid. All the women blamed poverty for selling their children, but one described how she used the money to re-roof her home. In fairness, while this might sound extravagant to us, that really means a new sheet of corrugated metal for a small building of one or two rooms.
The segment then moved to Yeji, where a reporter was interviewing children whose parents had sold them to fishermen there. Most were around 9 or 10; the youngest was five years old. Five years old. Facing a life of servitude, at least until he becomes old enough and if he’s lucky, his master gives him a boat and a net of his own. The conditions under which these boys work are far from safe, as they go out with each other in large, flat-bottom canoes to pull in nets.
It wasn’t all bad news, as the International Organization for Migration is making efforts to free these children and stop the flow of child trafficking. Right now, their efforts largely focus on paying fishermen for the children, which seems like a pretty poor solution to me. With the money they get for one child from IOM, they can afford to buy two or three more. Obviously, the ‘root cause’ of poverty needs to be addressed, as the only way to totally stop the sale of children is to create favourable economic conditions where parents can support themselves and their kids.
I am unsure of the law regarding human trafficking in Ghana, but from watching this report, it either needs to be a) toughened, or b) actually enforced. This is modern-day slavery and people who take part in it should be prosecuted. If parents know that the consequences of selling their children outweigh the benefits, they won’t do it.
I can barely remember being five, but whatever I was doing, it was what we in the developed world consider normal and carefree. I can’t even begin to imagine the existence of thousands of children here and around the world and for that I am forever grateful for the privilege of being born in Canada.
Children from all over Ghana are sold to fishermen because their parents need money for various reasons. The report started in a town in the south of the country where there are very few children to fill a new school building because their parents have sold them to fishermen in Yeji. The reporter interviewed several women who had sold their children for sums ranging from 300 000 to 500 000 cedis per child. One woman had sold her five children for a total of 2 million cedis. That’s about $250 or 50 bucks per kid. All the women blamed poverty for selling their children, but one described how she used the money to re-roof her home. In fairness, while this might sound extravagant to us, that really means a new sheet of corrugated metal for a small building of one or two rooms.
The segment then moved to Yeji, where a reporter was interviewing children whose parents had sold them to fishermen there. Most were around 9 or 10; the youngest was five years old. Five years old. Facing a life of servitude, at least until he becomes old enough and if he’s lucky, his master gives him a boat and a net of his own. The conditions under which these boys work are far from safe, as they go out with each other in large, flat-bottom canoes to pull in nets.
It wasn’t all bad news, as the International Organization for Migration is making efforts to free these children and stop the flow of child trafficking. Right now, their efforts largely focus on paying fishermen for the children, which seems like a pretty poor solution to me. With the money they get for one child from IOM, they can afford to buy two or three more. Obviously, the ‘root cause’ of poverty needs to be addressed, as the only way to totally stop the sale of children is to create favourable economic conditions where parents can support themselves and their kids.
I am unsure of the law regarding human trafficking in Ghana, but from watching this report, it either needs to be a) toughened, or b) actually enforced. This is modern-day slavery and people who take part in it should be prosecuted. If parents know that the consequences of selling their children outweigh the benefits, they won’t do it.
I can barely remember being five, but whatever I was doing, it was what we in the developed world consider normal and carefree. I can’t even begin to imagine the existence of thousands of children here and around the world and for that I am forever grateful for the privilege of being born in Canada.
posted by Tony at 3:52 p.m.
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