CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Samuel Sarpong, Ghana, June 1998
THEME = CHILDREN
Children forced to leave their homes and made to work in another
country.
Such are the facts revealed in this disturbing report.
lt happened on a Friday night in Togo, in a small village some distance from the capital, Lome. Afi Dziwornu, then aged 15, was asleep when she was awoken by her mother and told to accompany an elderly woman to the city. She had no knowledge what she was supposed to do in the city. When she asked, her mother shouted at her: "Just pack your things". She packed her few belongings - two dresses and underclothes - and followed the elderly woman out into the darkness. On and on they trudged for hours on end. Then it dawned on her that the two-hour journey from her village to Lome, had turned into four hours. Her suspicions were aroused, but she could not understand what was amiss. Unknown to her, her mother had arranged for her to be taken to Ghana, so that the rest of her family could survive on the little food they had in the house. Afi might eventually return to the village once she was grown-up.
Three years have passed since Afi left Togo. Three years of a nightmarish experience. In Ghana, she has been continually maltreated by her "new mother". Afi's case remained unknown until the Ghanaian police uncovered a syndicate dealing in trafficking in children. Conservative estimates indicate that about five hundred Togolese children may have been lured into Ghana under this bizarre "arrangement" - some to serve as homehelps, others have been sold into what the police term "perpetual slavery" - with no possibility of going home. Following a tip-off to the police some time ago, Afi and about four others were rescued from the clutches of one of the syndicates.
A Nigerian, Hajia Sidi Musah, described by the police as the "brain behind the business", has been arrested and placed in custody together with her four alleged Togolese accomplices. During interrogation, Hajia Sidi confessed to recruiting the young girls aged between 10 and 14, all from Togo, to serve as homehelps. She later led the police to where her Togolese accomplices could be found. It's there the police found an emaciated Afi, at Hajia Sidi's house, where she had been kept for the past three years.
Afi told the police: "Hajia Sidi has been maltreating me ever since my arrival". She later led the police to trace the whereabouts of three other girls whom Hajia Sidi had already "contracted out". All the girls were brought into Ghana under bogus arrangements and at different periods. There was no contract between them and their prospective "benefactors", in fact they were completely at the mercy of their so-called benefactors.
In Ghana, "imported Togolese children" have no control over the duration of their stay in Ghana. When Ama Gbekah, 14, was brought to Ghana three years ago, she claims she was offered to a benefactor for a paltry sum, a "mere give- away price", she says. She doesn't know whether Hajia Sidi collected money from her benefactor every month. She also complains bitterly about her experience. "I often thought about running away but I didn't know where to go. Besides, I didn't have the means to move." She has appealed to the public to assist in locating her younger sister who has also been "contracted out" to someone.
Initially, Hajia Sidi denied selling the children. She then told her interrogators that she has now stopped the business. "I no longer deal in child slavery," she says. The 48-year-old Hajia Sidi explained: "The children are now brought to me by their parents or agents who want them to be given out as homehelps." Hajia, who would not say how much she charges for her services, says she receives just a token offering from her customers.
For the moment, the girls are under police protection, but police sources indicate that the recent finding is just the tip of the iceberg. "We are doing our utmost to track down the people involved in this illicit trade", reports Angubutoge Awuni, Director of the Police Public Relations Directorate. Awuni says: "Reports reaching us, indicate that some of the children have been sent to Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria from Togo." The Ghanaian authorities have therefore sought the assistance of INTERPOL to assist in tracking down the international syndicates.
Many Ghanaians are shocked by these revelations. "I'm lost for words. How can this be happening here?" enquiries Kofi Amofa, a civil servant. But Akua Afriyie, a trader, is not surprised by the tale. "I first heard about this trafficking in children, five years ago, when a woman who sells next to my stall, took in a Togolese child."
Since the trade is informal, the whole business is conducted on a personal basis and with very close associates. When the young girls are brought in from Togo, they stay with the contact persons here, who then arranges for them to be passed on to prospective customers.
Togo is Ghana's immediate neighbour to the east. About 80% of its 4.5 million people are engaged in subsistence farming. In Togo, there is evidence that some trafficking of girls for the purposes of prostitution or for exploiting them as domestic servants occurs, with no visible effort by the government to curtail the practice.
Mawuli Acolatse is a Togolese journalist. He says: "Despite a constitutional declaration of equality under the law, women continue to experience discrimination especially in education, pension benefits, inheritance and as a consequence of traditional law". He attributes the child trafficking issue to the severe deprivation which the women suffer from. "Trafficking in children is known to exist in Togo. It's a pointer to the fact that problems abound in the social setting."
Indeed, in rural Togo, parents sometimes force young children into domestic work in other households in exchange for cash. The government, meanwhile, has done nothing to stop this practice. Harsh economic conditions in the rural areas, where most of the population live, leaves women with little money other than what they have been able to obtain from their farm work. Although the Togolese constitution and family code provides for the protection of children's rights, in practice, government programmes often suffer from lack of enforcement.
The law does not specifically address the question of forced or bonded labour, including that performed by children . Traditionally, too, people do not see anything wrong with the concept of children working - they believe it is the norm rather than the exception. This means that children are sold into various forms of indentured and exploitative servitude. Informed sources in Togo, say they are not only taken to other West African countries but also to the Middle East or Asia.
It's sad to relate, but those involved in this scandalous trade have also developed sophisticated marketing strategies, keeping their eyes wide open against any "whistle blowers". "After all, we're just trying to make a quick buck", they say.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1998 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement