US embassy cable - 05ACCRA605

UNCLAS ACCRA 000605 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP LINDA BROWN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC, EAID, ELAB, GH, KCRM, KFRD, KWMN, PHUM, PREF, SMIG, Trafficking 
SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
REPORT FOR GHANA 
 
REF: A. ACCRA 00433 
 
     B. E-MAIL FROM LINDA BROWN INL/G/TIP 3/08/05 
 
1. This message is keyed to questions raised (ref B) 
regarding post's draft 2005 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 
report (ref A). 
 
2.  Question: Please state the number of trafficking victims 
processed through Accra's shelters/children's homes in 2004. 
 
Ghana's Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment reports 
that its single operational shelter saved 28 trafficked 
children during 2004. The children, all housed at the Osu 
Children's Home in Accra, ranged in ages from 8 to 17 years 
of age. Seven other trafficking victims at the shelter had 
reached the age of majority by the time they were rescued. 
Two more entered the shelter in January 2005. Among these 37 
victims were 11 Togolese, one Nigerian and one Sierra 
Leonean. The remainder were Ghanaian. Twenty-two have already 
been reunited with their families. 
 
In the Greater Accra Region, a second shelter has been 
renovated and will begin accepting children this year at 
Medina near Legon. 
 
3.  Question: Please state the total number of child 
trafficking victims rescued in 2004, both for internal and 
international trafficking. 
 
The Government of Ghana keeps no official statistics of the 
number of trafficking victims rescued. However, the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the GOG 
documented a total of 590 child victims being rescued in 
2004. Of these 590 victims, 18 were internationally 
trafficked Ghanaian children returned to Ghana and 12 were 
foreign children rescued in Ghana. 
 
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), with GOG 
support, rescued 544 trafficked children in 2004 of which 430 
have been successfully reintegrated into their families. All 
of these children were Ghanaian. In addition, 18 
internationally trafficked Ghanaian children were returned in 
2004 (12 from The Gambia and 6 from Nigeria). 
 
4. Question: Is the arrest of Chinese national Lin Xianghan 
truly considered a trafficking case, or is it being treated 
as alien smuggling? 
 
On February 21, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) arrested 
Lin Xianglan, a 45-year-old Chinese national who conspired 
with her husband in the People's Republic of China to smuggle 
Chinese to Ghana through a fraudulent business she set up in 
the Ghana Free Zones. These aliens were promised that they 
would be eventually taken to the U.S. in exchange for 
payments of 10,000 USD. Instead several ended up working on 
farms in the Volta Region where they were told they should 
work until their departure could be arranged. GIS deported 
Xianglan and all of the Chinese aliens involved in the matter 
in early March.  GIS Director Elizabeth Adjei confirmed to us 
that this was a case of alien smuggling, not trafficking, as 
was reported in the local press. 
YATES