Staff of the Department of Social Welfare drawn from the Eastern, Volta and Ashanti regions on Wednesday began a three-day capacity building training on rehabilitating victims of trafficking.
The workshop was being organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC).
Mr Clarke Noyoru, the Acting Head of Human Trafficking Secretariat, MOWAC, told the participants that it was their responsibility to ensure that victims of trafficking were rehabilitated well into the society
He said about 78 percent of victims of human trafficking are children and said the provision of support to them was essential.
Mr Eric Boakye-Peasah, Counter Trafficking Expert, IOM, said the organization aimed at helping to rescue and rehabilitate victims of
trafficking.
He said in 2002, the IOM realized that a lot of children, especially from the coastal areas were being trafficked to fishing communities in other parts of the country.
Mr Boakye-Peasah said a lot of Ghanaian boys and girls were being trafficked to foreign lands under the false impression of securing them well
paid jobs but the IOM had realized that staffs of the Social Welfare Department were not adequately trained to handle the victims, hence the workshop.
He said though the Human Traffic Act had been passed, there was the need to do the referral system and how to manage victims of trafficking.