After Four Years Enslaved, 14-Year-Old Boy is Free to Go to School
Child Labour
Last week, a 14-year-old boy was rescued from suspected slavery in the fishing industry on Lake Volta. The victim said he had worked on the lake since he was 10 years old, setting bamboo and basket traps and collecting fish from dawn until the afternoon. Meanwhile, as he woke up early to work, the children of the fisherman who enslaved him would head off to school.
The boy told the rescue team that the fisherman would beat him with a cane.
Rescue came on March 14th when IJM and partners from the police and social welfare department arrested the suspected trafficker and brought the boy to safety.
The boy is now staying at a shelter where he is receiving aftercare services. He says he is happy that he was rescued and he wants other children experiencing the same conditions to also be rescued. He is looking forward to starting school.