to address trafficking. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex or forced labor. The government continued to fund a hotline for women affected by violence, including female trafficking victims. A government- funded NGO published a short film to raise awareness about child sex tourism and the government’s newly launched online platform for tourists to report suspected crimes. Although law enforcement collaborated with foreign officials to investigate German citizens’ participation in child sex tourism, there were no reported prosecutions of German offenders in Germany.The government did not provide anti-trafficking training or guidance for its diplomatic personnel.The government trained military personnel to recognize and prevent trafficking prior to their deployment abroad  on  international peacekeeping missions.

GHANA:  Tier 2 Watch List        
Ghana is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. The trafficking of Ghanaians, particularly children, within the country is more prevalent than the transnational trafficking of foreign migrants. Ghanaian boys and girls are subjected to forced labor within the country in fishing, domestic service, street hawking, begging, portering, artisanal gold mining, quarrying, herding, and agriculture. Ghanaian girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are subjected to prostitution within Ghana. Child prostitution is prevalent in the Volta region and is growing in the oil-producing western regions. Ghanaian girls are subjected to a form of forced ritual servitude to atone for sins of a family member, which can last for a few months or several years.There has been an increase in the number of Ghanaian girls and young women from the northern region working as head porters in greater Accra; they are at risk for sex trafficking and forced labor. Ghanaian women and children are recruited and sent to West Africa, the Middle East, and Europe for forced labor and sex trafficking.There was an increase in the number of young Ghanaian women recruited with the promise of domestic or hospitality industry jobs in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. After their return many of them reported being deceived, overworked, starved, abused, molested, and/or forced into prostitution. Ghanaian men were also recruited under false pretenses to the Middle East and subjected to forced labor in the domestic sector and forced prostitution. In recent years a few Ghanaian men and women were identified as victims of forced labor in the United States. Women and girls voluntarily migrating from Vietnam, China, and neighboring West African countries are subjected to sex trafficking in Ghana. Citizens from West African countries are subjected to forced labor in Ghana in agriculture or domestic service. Ghana is a transit point for West Africans subjected to sex trafficking in Europe, especially Italy and Germany. Reports of corruption and bribery in the judicial system continued, stymieing  anti-trafficking measures.
The Government of Ghana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these measures, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing anti-trafficking efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Ghana is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. During the reporting period, the failure to provide operating budgets for law enforcement and protection agencies hampered the government’s anti-trafficking efforts. Although the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) continued law enforcement efforts

focused primarily on cross-border trafficking cases, it once again relied heavily on foreign donors and NGOs to support these efforts and significantly fewer victims were identified. Additionally, for the fourth year, the government did not provide anti-trafficking training to prosecutors despite acknowledgment that such training was needed. The government supported protective services for foreign national victims, but did not provide any funding for the human trafficking fund for victim services or to its two shelters, which remained in dangerous condition and unable to provide basic services and security to residents. In a positive step, the government reconvened the Human Trafficking Management Board (HTMB).

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR GHANA:
Continue to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses— including internal labor and sex trafficking—and convict and punish trafficking offenders; designate an attorney general’s prosecutor in each region to lead the prosecution of human trafficking cases; provide the police’s AHTU adequate resources to conduct law enforcement efforts; train law enforcement, child labor inspectors, and social welfare personnel to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations—such as women in prostitution, migrant workers, and children working in agriculture, mining, fishing, and portering—and refer them to protective services; provide trafficking-specific training to prosecutors and other judicial personnel; adopt the legislative instrument and fully implement the 2005 Human Trafficking Act; provide sufficient government funding for protective services to victims, including to the human trafficking fund; ensure the maintenance of government-operated shelters and training of staff in victim care; improve data collection and reporting on victims identified and assisted; take appropriate measures to regulate the activity of licensed and unlicensed recruitment agencies and investigate agencies suspected of participating in human trafficking of Ghanaian migrant workers; and provide adequate resources for the HTMB to finalize and implement the national plan of action against trafficking.

PROSECUTION
The government continued anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The 2005 Human Trafficking Act—amended in 2009 to align its definition of human trafficking with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol— prohibits all forms of trafficking and prescribes penalties of five to 20 years’ imprisonment.These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. In 2014, the government conducted 94 investigations, initiated 15 prosecutions, and secured seven convictions, compared with 140 investigations, 20 prosecutions, and six convictions in the previous year. Most of the investigations involved suspected transnational trafficking. One conviction involved forced child labor, while six were for sex trafficking crimes involving adult victims. The convicted traffickers received sentences ranging from five to 10 years’ imprisonment.The Attorney General’s Department prosecutors did not report prosecuting trafficking cases; the