Bright Appiah, Executive Director of Child Rights International

Executive Director for Child Rights International, Bright Appiah, has said there should be a structure in place in tackling issues concerning child trafficking in the country.

According to him, issues regarding child trafficking are very intense and complex, considering the indicators that qualify such activities, hence the need to put measures in place to curb it.

“I personally feel that in dealing with this, we need to have a structure in handling some of these things because the issues of trafficking, if you look at various indicators that come out in terms of what will qualify to be trafficking issue, it’s a bit deep and very complex”, he said.

In a discussion on Joy News, he stated that Ghana has put in a lot of effort when it comes to dealing with child labour issues in the country, comparing the rates of child labour in 2015 which were 48% before reducing to 22% in 2021.

“In Ghana, there has been a lot of effort in reducing child labour. In 2015, the child labour rate was almost around 48% and based on the data that we have collected, in 2021 which will soon launch the report, the child labour situation is around 22% now”, he stated.

Mr Appiah said his outfit was optimistic the interventions made by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), concerning child labour in the cocoa sector so far, will provide some level of support to curb it.

“So, we are hoping that these interventions will provide some level of support in terms of the way and manner we have to deal with this particular issue”, he said.

“We are hoping that the various interventions that are going on under the sustainability programme of the different partners that are buying cocoa from Ghana will see a further reduction in child labour situation”.

“So, the calculation of it is very important and this is what stakeholders like COCOBOD, the ministry of employment, and any other institution that is working in relation to dealing with child labour must have a full understanding of it so that when we are practicalising it, we know that Ghana is taking certain steps to be able to do with that”, he added.