By Isaac Newton Tetteh
Tema, May 15, GNA-The Tema Metropolitan Area in the Greater Accra Region has been identified as a soft haven for human trafficking activities, the officer in charge of the Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service in the Tema Region has revealed.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Raymond Mwinsori, Officer in Charge of the Tema Regional Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, made the revelation during a stakeholder engagement with the Ghana Progressive Hotels Association (GHAPROHA) in Tema.
ASP Mwinsori hinted that the Tema Metropolis has become a hot spot for human trafficking activities, as some hoteliers have given their facilities to human traffickers to perpetuate such inhumane activities.
According to him, fighting human trafficking remained a tough battle, and the police would need the collaborations from the various stakeholders, including the Ghana Progressive Hostel Association and the relevant state institutions, to curb the human trafficking menace within the Tema Metropolis.
He further noted that the porosity of the various Ghanaian borders to other neighbouring West African countries, such as Nigeria, Togo, and Benin, has made the activities of human trafficking very lucrative for the perpetrators.
He urged landlords, caretakers, and hoteliers to conduct thorough investigations on people they offer their accommodations to, especially those who were non-Ghanaians.
Mr Emmanuel Gaedda Asando, the National President of the Ghana Progressive Hotels Association (GHAPROHA), in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), stated that most of the human trafficking activities could be carried out in unregistered motels, stressing that state institutions must crack the whip on non-registered accommodations and rentals in the country.
Mr Asando further said hoteliers must unite and support the law-enforcing agencies by providing relevant information to the security agencies to help curb the human trafficking activities.
He stated that the ultimate goal of the association was to help promote the tourism sector in the country but not to promote criminal activities, therefore calling on hoteliers to register their various hotels with the relevant institutions.
He said GHAPROHA was in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service to produce data on accommodation system units to gather the relevant information on the contributions made by the various hotels and the hospitality sector to the country’s economy.
GNA
LS/LAA