Accra – On 10 January 2019, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ghana, in partnership with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, launched a new project entitled “To strengthen the Government of Ghana’s capacity and prevent Trafficking in Persons (TiP) in targeted sectors”.

The project, funded by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons of the US Department of State (J/TIP), aims at strengthening the capacity of the Government of Ghana to engage new Ministries in prevention activities to combat human trafficking and provide services for adult victims, with a specific focus on internal and cross-border adult sex trafficking.

The official launch of the project was attended by more than 30 key national stakeholders representing Ministries, the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Ghana Police Service (GPS), Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), academia and NGOs. The Consultation meeting that followed the launch was instrumental to introduce the project and provided a platform to engage traditional and new participants to discuss counter-trafficking efforts in Ghana, identify gaps and challenges, and commit to inter-agency cooperation.

Ms. Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, IOM Ghana’s Chief of Mission, recognised participants’ commitment and encouraged partnership efforts geared at combating TiP in the country. Ms. Victoria Natsu, Head of the Human Trafficking Secretariat, commended the partnership with IOM and the results achieved thus far, underlining the need for yet more efforts to support adult VoTs, specifically victims of sex trafficking.

After the project launch, the stakeholders committed to further cooperate and provided valuable input for an upcoming study on sex trafficking, which will focus on trends and challenges, trafficking routes, facilitators and supply chains, affected regions and vulnerability criteria of the trafficked population.

For more information, please contact Ms. Victoria Klimova at IOM ghana at vklimova@iom.int or +233 302 742 930.