Child Migration in Ghana: Issues, Risks and Opportunities

"On May 13, 2011, media in Ghana reported that 116 children between the ages of four and 17 were rescued from communities along Lake Volta—which links the country’s northern savannah with the coast—after they had been trafficked from the country’s Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, and Volta regions (Awuni 2011). Ghana is recognized as a source, transit, and destination for women and children who are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and domestic and commercial labour. Despite this reputation, only a small percentage of children who migrate are trafficked as the vast majority migrate ‘voluntarily’ and often independently of their birth parents."