Kumasi (Ash), Aug. 18, GNA - Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, has pledged the government's resolve to deal decisively with child trafficking.

She said this would, however, require effective collaboration and total support of all stakeholders to succeed.

A national database on human trafficking, launched by her Ministry in April this year, showed that about 70 per cent of the human trafficking is internal with an estimated 78 per cent of victims being children aged between 4=9616 years.

"This means that we have to step up our intervention mechanisms to prevent, protect victims and also prosecute offenders of this heinous crime."

Mrs Azumah-Mensah was opening a four-day annual forum on human trafficking at the Royal Lamerta Hotel in Kumasi on Wednesday.

It is being held by the government, with the various anti-human trafficking partners, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The goal is to discuss interventions and best practices to tackle the menace.

The Minister said it was important to create the platform for continuous dialogue and design effective strategies to promote collaboration, networking and partnership to combat the phenomenon.

She said already, some headway had been made, citing the establishment of anti-human trafficking units within the police service and bureau/desks within the Ghana Immigration Service and the Attorney-General's Department to check cross border trafficking and bring offenders to justice.

Additionally, there had been an increase in community sensitization and advocacy, establishment of community child protection committees and the inauguration of the human trafficking management board, to provide technical advice on initiatives to deal with the problem.

Mrs Azumah-Mensah praised the police and other partners who acted swiftly to rescue, rehabilitate and re-integrate recent child trafficking victims into their families and communities.

Mrs Elizabeth Donkoh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Parent and Children Foundation, who chaired the opening session, said 93we should collaborate with each other to add a shine to make the children's dream a reality".

Mr Eric Ockrah, a representative of UNICEF, said partnership is a key to achieving results and commended the government for showing the needed political will.