Ghana has been ranked the 34th country with the most modern slaves out of 167 countries in the world.
This is according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, the flagship research report published by the Walk Free Foundation.
North Korea has the greatest prevalence of modern slavery, with 4.37% of its population estimated to be enslaved. It is also the country with the weakest government response in terms of actions taken to combat modern slavery. The next highest prevalence of slavery is found in Uzbekistan (3.97%), followed by Cambodia (1.65%).
The survey results estimated that there are 103,300 people enslaved in Ghana . 85% of the people are in forced labour, and 15% are in forced marriage. “For forced labour, the main industries of concern are farming and fishing, retail sales and then manual labour and factory work” the research stated.
The Communications Manager for Challenging Heights, Miss Pomaa Arthur in a statement said Ghana needs to do more although the report is a reflection that Ghana is making some progress in bringing an end to modern slavery.
According to the report Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for approximately 13.6% (6,245,800) of the world’s total enslaved population. Within the region, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and the Central African Republic have the highest prevalence of modern slavery (all 1.13%). Forms of slavery in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia were forced labour and forced marriage.
“In 2014, the Global Slavery Index ranked Ghana 21 in the world and 8 in Sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 193,100 people enslaved. It is good news that our prevalence rate is dropping but we shouldn’t forget that there are still 103,300 trapped in slavery in the country,” she said.
Miss Arthur therefore called for a better coordination between the Government and NGOs such as Challenging Heights working to bring an end to slavery.
She urged the general public to take the issue of human trafficking and modern slavery seriously and make it their business to join the fight against the menace.
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