Five Children in Ghana Will Spend Christmas in Freedom!
Slavery
In late November, IJM and partners brought four boys and one girl between the ages of 8 and 15 to safety from trafficking in the fishing industry in Ghana.
They faced treacherous working conditions and were abused by the fishermen for six months. The young girl had a wound from being punished with a knife.
This operation also led to the arrest of four suspects.
The IJM team and government partners initially set out to bring to safety three children. On the day of the operation, two children had left early to fish, meaning only one child could be located and taken to safety.
The operation was not over, however. The team did not give up.
The first child shared the names of two other children trafficked on the lake, and the man who trafficked them. The team began to prepare a follow-up operation. But before they could, the suspect mentioned by the child came to the police station to bail out one of the previously arrested suspects. He was detained and police forced him to produce the two children he had allegedly been using for forced labour.
Still the team was not done fighting for freedom. The two children who left to fish early were still missing. The team diligently searched for them until they were located - a week after the first attempt.
Monica Nettey, IJM Attorney, said even in the face of unforeseen challenges, the team was highly motivated to continue to fight for these children.
“Despite all the disappointments, I think the team kept pushing because before setting off on this operation, one of the goals we set for ourselves was that none of these children would spend Christmas in slavery. And so we kept going until that was achieved.”
One of the children told Nettey, “it was good you came at the time you came because one of the victims you rescued had almost drowned twice before your coming and I don’t know what would have happened to her.”
The children are now receiving care at a shelter, and all have a bright future ahead of them.
IJM has now brought to safety 214 children from slavery since the first operation in 2015. It's thanks to your generosity that we've been able to keep going back for these precious 214 lives.
We partner with Ghanaian authorities to not only find these children, but to provide aftercare for them, bring the traffickers to justice and strengthen the capacity of the justice system to protect children from slavery.⠀
You can be a part of this transformative work by helping us go back for children still in slavery.