Increasing use of cyberspace to facilitate human trafficking worrying – Mpraeso MP

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Mpraeso Constituency, Davis Ansah Opoku, has condemned the rising tide of human trafficking cases in Ghana and Africa as a whole.

The lawmaker said the crime, which is on the rise, is worrying and must be a matter of concern for African leaders.

According to him, the syndicates behind this activity have resorted to the use of social media to facilitate their crime.

Making a statement on the matter in Parliament on Wednesday, July 19, Mr. Ansah Opoku said the syndicates lure unsuspecting individuals into the business and profit from their sufferings.

“Mr. Speaker, it is heartbreaking to note that while the Government of Ghana is striving relentlessly to tackle the known patterns of human trafficking, traffickers are taking advantage of technological advancements and new media to forge new ways to facilitate human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking.”

“This has transformed the global human trafficking business into one UNICEF conservatively estimates turn an annual profit of about $32 billion; other estimates peg this figure as over $150 billion.”

“Mr. Speaker, human trafficking, specifically sex trafficking, happens on this scale because an entire infrastructure supports and facilitates it. Young, vulnerable, and impressionable girls are recruited through social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, with traffickers masquerading as love interests.”

“Others are lured by the extravagant lifestyles of social media influencers who traffickers sponsor. According to a 2018 report by the All-Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade of the British Parliament, other women are lured online with promises of employment in other countries only to be coerced into brothels when they arrive,” excerpts of his statement read.

In a related development, the BBC on Monday, July 10, published a documentary alleging that International Justice Mission- (IJM-Ghana) wrongfully removed children from their families.

However, IJM has described allegations against aspects of its operations in Ghana contained in the recent BBC documentary as “incredibly concerning” and of “material inaccuracies.”

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