‘Re-trafficking’ in the Coastal Communities and the Volta Lake of Ghana: Children’s Rights, Agency and Intra-household Bargaining Position

It is estimated that human trafficking is a $150 billion industry and every country, including Ghana must do everything possible to stop this human trade. ‘Re-trafficking’ of rescued and re-integrated children has become a long-drawn-out phenomenon along the rural coastal fishing communities and the Volta Lake. This study sought to explore the extent to which the interplay of the re-trafficked children’s agency and the existing intra-household bargaining positions within households influence ‘re-trafficking’. A multiple case study design was adopted by focusing on twelve fishing communities in the Volta and Greater Accra and Brong-Ahafo Regions. Out of the regions, 6 fishing communities were randomly selected from Krachi West and Sene East districts along the Volta Lake, whilst 6 were also selected randomly from Ketu South and Dangbe East to represent coastal fishing communities. In-depth interview and focus group discussion were employed to elicit information from 16 re-trafficked children and 12 of their parents/guardians as well as 8 “slave masters” and 4 “slave mistresses” for the study. Mainly, qualitative way of using direct quotations and interpretative techniques were adopted in analysing the data. The data on the socio-demographic background of the respondents were analysed, using simple percentages. It was established in this study that, both parents and children play a major role in the ‘re-trafficking’ phenomenon. That is, while the ‘re-trafficking’ in the study communities thrives primarily on parents’ decisions and negotiations, the children, at times, manoeuvre their way back to where they were rescued. It is thus recommended that, Government and other stakeholders should adopt an effective bottom-up approach to tackle the child trafficking and ‘re-trafficking phenomena for appropriate intervention policies.