Ghana authorities and IJM report 575 children rescued from Lake Volta trafficking since 2015

Ghanaian authorities and International Justice Mission have removed 575 children and vulnerable adults from forced labor on Lake Volta through 138 joint operations since 2015. The same partnership has contributed to more than 70 convictions for child trafficking.

Lake Volta, the world’s largest man-made lake, remains a site where children as young as four are placed on fishing boats. Fishermen use the children’s small hands to untangle nets caught on submerged trees, according to accounts collected by photographer Ben Adams.

Rescue and prosecution efforts International Justice Mission Ghana director Anita Budu said prosecutions increased after investigators and prosecutors began coordinating cases. Before the partnership, convictions were rare. Senior state attorney Andrews Dodzi Adugu said the collaboration now produces cases that reach court with evidence sufficient for conviction.

He stated the goal is to create a deterrent so that traffickers expect arrest.

Training and enforcement changes In 2022, IJM trained hundreds of police officers, prosecutors and social workers. One trained investigator later identified a trafficked teenager brought to a station on theft charges and referred the case to social welfare, resulting in six additional children being removed.

IJM Australia chief executive David Braga said the organization supplies patrol boats and works to increase the number of officers willing to conduct lake patrols. Budu reported that some fishermen now choose adult crew members over children.

Survivor accounts Jerry Amoh, now an adult, said he was eight when a woman promised his mother food, shelter and schooling, then took him to the lake. He worked four years before his mother located him and brought him home. Amoh now teaches in a classroom and participates in a network of survivors. He said the group functions as family for those who return from the lake.