Prohibition and offences relating to trafficking
Meaning of trafficking
1. (1) Human trafficking means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, trading or receipt of persons within and across national borders by
(a) the use of threats, force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or exploitation of vulnerability, or
(b) giving or receiving payments and benefits to achieve consent.
2) Exploitation shall include at the minimum, induced prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, salary or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
3) Placement for sale, bonded placement, temporary placement, placement as service where exploitation by someone else is the motivating factor shall also constitute trafficking.
4) Where children are trafficked, the consent of the child, parents or guardian of the child cannot be used as a defence in prosecution under this Act, regardless of whether or not there is evidence of abuse of power, fraud or deception on the part of the trafficker or whether the vulnerability of the child was taken advantage of.
Prohibition of trafficking
2. (1) A person shall not traffic another person within the meaning of section 1 or act as an intermediary for the trafficking of a person.
(2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years.
(3) For purposes of this section, an intermediary is someone who participates in or is concerned with any aspect of trafficking under this Act who may or may not be known to the family of the trafficked person.
(4) To be concerned with an aspect of trafficking in this Act means
(a) to send to, take to, consent to the taking to or to receive at any place any person for the purposes of trafficking, or
(b) to enter into an agreement whether written or oral, to subject any party to the agreement or subject any other person to trafficking.
Provision of trafficked person prohibited
3. (1) A person who provides another person for purposes of trafficking commits an offence even where the person is a parent.
(2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years.
Use of trafficked persons prohibited
4. A person who uses a trafficked person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years.
Conveyance in trafficking
5. Means of conveyance in trafficking includes use of public transport and other forms of transport such as conveyance by land, water or air.
Duty to inform
6. (1) A person with information about trafficking
(a) Shall inform the police, or
(b) May inform
(i) the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice,
(ii) the Department of Social Welfare,
(iii) the Legal Aid Board, or
(iv) a reputable Civil Society Organisation.
(2) A person who fails to inform the police commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than two hundred and fifty penalty units or a term of imprisonment not less than twelve months or to both.
Special mitigating factors
7. Where a court in sentencing a person convicted under section 3 or 4 finds that there are special circumstances related to the offence or the offender, and that the imposition of the minimum sentence in respect of the offence is harsh, it may sentence the accused to a lesser term of imprisonment in addition to a fine of not less than five hundred penalty units.
Application
8. A person is liable to be tried and punished in Ghana for trafficking if the person does an act which if done within the jurisdiction of the courts in this country would have constituted the offence of trafficking.
