Friday 12 September 2003

Press Briefing Notes
Friday 12 September 2003
Spokesperson: Christopher Lom

1. GHANA - Trafficked Children Reunited With Parents
2. GERMANY - Integrating German Labour Migrants
3. RUSSIAN FEDERATION - Workshop on Irregular Migration

GHANA - Trafficked Children Reunited With Parents- A first group of a hundred children who had been trafficked for forced labour in fishing communities in the Atebubu district of the Brong Ahafo have been successfully reunited with their parents. Another 73 children will be reunited with their parents over the weekend.

The children, who had been sold by their impoverished parents to local fishermen for up to 1.5 million Cedis (US$180), left the IOM transit centre in the town of Yeji on Thursday morning and were taken to towns in the Volta and Central region of Ghana.

"The children were very happy at the idea of seeing their parents again and were already talking of going back to school" said project manager Dr. Ernest Taylor.

The Ghanaian Minister of Women and Children's affairs, Mrs Gladys Asmah, who travelled to Yeji to witness the first departures, denounced "the evils of trafficking that deprive children of an education and of a future". The Paramount chief of Yeji, Nana Kagbe Resi called for the release of all trafficked children in his district.


Prior to the release of the children, IOM identified the needs of the parents to help them undertake income-generating activities through the provision of training and micro-credits. The parents have now received business training and loans to start or expand small businesses ranging from selling foodstuffs and textiles, through charcoal production and vending, to the setting up of small restaurants known as "Chop-Bars."

Family reunification will be consolidated through activities aimed at allowing children to return to school or join vocational training programmes.

To reunite the children with their parents, IOM organized parents' identification sessions during which photographs of the fishing-boys were spread out face up. Parents would then pick out photograph(s) of their children, mentioning the name and the age of the child. The information provided by the parents was then cross-checked with bio-data compiled by IOM provided by the employers.

These children are part of a larger group of children soon to be released by their former employers. In return, the fishermen will receive training, modern fishing equipment and micro credits to help them improve their fishing techniques or engage in other income generating activities.

So far, most of the fishermen who have accepted to release the children have decided to give up fishing on Lake Volta and to engage in
other activities, such as cattle and pig rearing. IOM is currently providing them with training and helping them through the purchase of livestock and essential equipment.

The victims, mostly boys aged between 3 and 14 were forced to work in the fishing industry. They work from dawn to dusk casting and drawing nets on Lake Volta. They are poorly fed and never paid. In some cases, the nets get stuck at the bottom of the lake and the children have to dive to release them. Many have drowned.

According to IOM's Dr. Ernest Taylor, local traditional leaders helped him and his team win the cooperation of the fishermen, locally known as "slave masters". The Ghanaian authorities, the ILO and Apple, a local NGO, cooperate in the implementation of the US-funded IOM programme.

Child trafficking in Ghanaian society is only partially explained by poverty. Traditionally it has been a common practice for poor parents to hand over their children to be looked after by relatives and friends. Traffickers are now exploiting this age-old tradition resulting in parents inadvertently but effectively selling their children. There are currently no laws against human trafficking in Ghana.

For more information, please call Dr Ernest Taylor. Tel: 00.233.24 73 09 91. Email: etaylor@iom.int.

GERMANY - Integrating German Labour Migrants - IOM Berlin has held the last of three brainstorming meetings on the integration of labour migrants with representatives of German charities, NGOs, religious bodies and government officials.


Entitled "Migration and Integration in the German Labour Market - Responsibilities of Civil Society", the meeting focused on problems and achievements in the integration of labour migrants in the context of the ongoing debate on the German migration law and the needs of future integration efforts and services.

Information is a major issue in achieving successful integration of labour migrants and participants agreed that improvements were needed in the areas of language training and the recognition of foreign diplomas.

The findings of the brainstorming meetings will form the basis of the IOM Open Dialogue project. This aims to promote the exchange of ideas between Germans creating a forum for the objective discussion of realistic solutions concerning labour migration, future labour shortfalls and integration.

For more information, contact the Labour Migration/Integration project team at IOM Berlin..
Anna Goos, IOM Berlin, Tel: +49.30.278.778.18. Email: agoos@iom.int
Patricia Keeding, IOM Berlin, Tel: +49.30.278.778.18. Email: pkeeding@iom.int.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION - Workshop on Irregular Migration- IOM Moscow and the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation today opened a two-day workshop on irregular migration from Russia.

This Belgian-funded workshop brings together high-ranking representatives of the Russian federal and regional branches of the Ministry of Interior, the Federal Migration Service, the Federal Border Guard Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representatives of the General Prosecutor Office and State Duma as well as their counterparts from the Belgian Ministry of Interior and the Embassies of European countries, Canada and Australia.

Representatives from international organizations, such as UNHCR and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will also contribute to the workshop. Participants will focus on a number of issues such as unregulated migration flows, organized crime, smuggling and trafficking in persons, political asylum, refugee protection and migrants' return to their home countries.

In addition, representatives of the Association of foreign employment companies will discuss the legitimate labour migration options as a legal alternative to irregular economic migration.

Irregular migration from the Russian Federation is increasingly becoming a concern for the Government of Russia and other countries of Europe and the CIS. Despite concerted efforts directed at the prevention and control of irregular migration, the problem is assuming new dimensions in association with organized crime and is regarded as a considerable threat to regional stability and security.