The Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, has advocated for the resettlement plans for residents of coastal belts in fishing communities before the implementation of alternative livelihood plans aimed at curbing child labor and trafficking.
He has argued that poor coastal dwellers are battling diminishing land space by sea erosion coupled with their ever-increasing population, saying most alternative livelihood projects to stem trafficking in those communities have failed because these primary challenges were not tackled.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ri6E3NKHKCu87WUQkyUflXa5RGbGRwMF”]“The portion of the land where fishing communities are found has not changed, and in some instances, the wave is even doing a damage and taking parts of it from them, and we also know about large size families, so while the land is diminishing, we are getting more people (there),” Kwamena Duncan said.
He was speaking on Thursday at the end of a two-day strategic planning meeting of District Child Committees (DCCs) or Child Panels in combatting child labor and trafficking in coastal fishing areas of the Central Region.
The two-day forum, organized by Friends of the Nation, a Non-Governmental Organization, and sponsored by USAID, was attended by DCCs from the ten Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) that lie along the coast of the Central Region, places where most children under eighteen years are trafficked for fishing work elsewhere.
Participants at the forum stressed rolling out alternative livelihood programmes to minimize poverty in the fishing communities, a phenomenon accounting for parents giving their children out, but Kwamena Duncan was of the view that is not the root of the problem.
According to the Regional Minister, local governments and other stakeholders that are even struggling to provide such communities “a basic necessity like water,” adding they are bound to fail there with any form of alternative livelihood to take those people out of poverty without tackling the root.
He indicated that “even if it will be the case and we would have to do some settlement far off from where they are, so that if we settle them somewhere better, on land that is supportive of some other ventures, then we can talk of alternative livelihood.”
In a communique issued at the end of the programme by the Child Panels, Traditional Authorities, representatives of the security agencies in the Central Region and other stakeholders, read by Nana Otabil IX, Chief of Gomoa Ankamu, and presented to the Regional Minister, participants called on government to enforce laws that protect children against trafficking and child labor.
The communique implored MMDAs to commit adequate resources to combat child labor and trafficking at the local level.
Briefing journalist at the programme, Kwesi Randolph Johnson, the Population, Health, Environment and Education Coordinator of Friends of the Nation, lamented that one challenge in the fight against Child Labour and Trafficking (CLat) is how both the victims’ families and patrons coach the victims to exonerate perpetrators from legal processes.
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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana