Security personnel in Anglophone West Africa on Monday converged in Accra to re-strategize and sharpen their skills in the fight against human trafficking.
The one week programme attracted 34 participants from Nigeria, Cameroon, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana.
The meeting comes in the wake of an upsurge of sophisticated crimes and the need for security personnel to strategize in order to be ahead of
perpetrators and ensure successful prosecution.
A manual for investigators in human trafficking was expected to be outdoored at the end of the meeting.
Ms. Akua Sena Dansua, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs opened the meeting and called on Ghanaians to resolve to uproot human trafficking, which she described as a social canker, from the society.
"Individually and collectively we can make it," the Minister remarked.
Ms. Dansua said human trafficking was cruel and inhuman describing it as "modern day form of slave trade."
She noted that the greatest number of victims of human trafficking were children, women, the poor and the least educated in society.
According to her, human trafficking also robbed children and victims of their humanity, dignity, future and sometimes their lives.
'It is certainly one of the most heinous crimes that can be perpetrated by any person against a fellow human being and must be eradicated."
Ms. Dansua said research showed that human trafficking was part of organized crime which comprised drug trafficking, child pornography, removal of organs, terrorist attacks, child prostitution, seizure of documents and debt bondage.
"Some victims also unfortunately end up in prison for non possession of valid travel documents or forced to indulge in illicit activities such as prostitution."
The Minister contended that in the Sub Region, several countries were serving as "sending, transit or receiving points as far as human trafficking was concerned'' adding, the trend had the tendency of compromising the cordial relations among nations.
These, she noted were caused largely by poor enforcement on laws, lack of collaboration among nations, lack of political will, language barrier, high illiteracy and ignorance of laws, insufficient logistics.
Other factors, the Minister cited, were irregular migration, gender discrimination, chronic unemployment, poverty and demand for cheap labour, armed conflict and diseases.
"It is in this light that ECOWAS countries recently adopted the Regional Policy on Protection and Assistance for Victims of Trafficking in the country this year."
This policy, the Minister said, sought to strengthen the cooperation and partnership among member countries in the fight against human trafficking.
She told the participants that Ghana had a policy and a National Plan of Action which had been finalized to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2016.
As part of measures to eliminate human trafficking, the Minister called for education of the public to report suspected cases of human
trafficking and the need for security personnel to protect the confidentiality of information so that people could have confidence in security agencies.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr. Paul Quaye, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) said as crime got sophisticated every day; it was
significant for security personnel to meet periodically to strategize in order to be ahead of perpetrators.
He said the Police administration was looking forward to closer partnership with their counterparts part in the region to reduce crime to the barest minimum.
Mr. Asiamah Amponsah, Assistant Commissioner of Police and Director of Interpol, Ghana, urged participants to develop the networking approach so they could share information on activities of perpetrators.
Dr. Margaret Sackey, National Programme Manager, International Labour Organization (ILO), said a study conducted by ILO and a local non governmental organization in 2000 in the Sub-Region showed that about 200,000 children were trafficked for labour exploitation.
She said it was imperative for security personnel to sharpen their skills on crime detection and prevention," knowledge was dynamic and traffickers were seeking ways to outwit security officers, there is the need to enhance one's knowledge and skills".
Dr. Sackey urged the participants to adopt child friendly approach during rescue programmes, interviewing and orientation of victims.
Ghana has passed the human trafficking Act (Act 694) in 2005 to prevent, reduce and punish human trafficking related matters and contravention of the Act attract a summary conviction of not less than five years imprisonment.