Accra, Nov. 3, GNA - Vice President Aliu Mahama on Monday condemned the slavery and trafficking of children for labour and prostitution, saying it was assuming business dimensions as the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and must be stopped.

"Why must we allow this to happen to our children despite the experiences and bitter lessons of the slave trade?" he asked. "The slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries may be pardoned but we cannot be forgiven for allowing child slavery, which is being carried out in the 21st century," he said.

Vice President Mahama said these when he opened a national conference on Historic Slave Traffic, aimed at uncovering the untold stories of the slave trade, including unknown routes used to transport them and its effect on socio-economic and cultural development.

Academics, chiefs, diplomats, religious leaders and tourism operators are participating in the three-day conference, which forms part of the UNESCO-supported National Slave Route Project, initiated in 1999.

Vice President Mahama narrated some of the harrowing experiences of victims of child slavery, including some as young as five years, and tasked the participants of the conference to also consider the means of stopping the practice across Africa.

"What is alarming about this is that child trafficking just like the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade is becoming an organized business. In a recent survey of trafficked children, 46 per cent of them said their parents or close relatives gave them away," he stated.