Accra, June 21, GNA - Children In Need, a charitable organisation for needy children, on Wednesday urged the media to expose the worst forms of child labour and abuse and mobilise action to bring the perpetrators to book.

Such abuses include engaging children under 18 years in quarrying, mining, fishing and other strenuous, hazardous and exploitative economic activities.

At a news conference at which very disturbing still pictures and a video documentary were shown to expose some of these activities, the Executive Co-ordinator of the NGO, Mr Ken Amoah, urged individuals, institutions and donor agencies to provide the material and logistics support to save children.

"The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and the recent Children's Act: 560 of 1998 all have provisions for the protection, survival and development of children in the country.

"Unfortunately, there is still a high incidence of child abuse, worst forms of child labour and an increasing number of children living permanently in the street," he said.

Even though the Children's Act of 1998 set the minimum age for engaging in light economic activities at 15 and strenuous ones at 18, some of the children in the documentary working at sand and stone quarries were between the ages of four and 10.

The law says economic activities must not interfere with the education of children or threaten their mental, physical, emotional or psychological well-being.

However, children at the quarries are at the risk of snake bite, scorpion sting, explosions, physical displacement and others.

Some were seen struggling with loads too heavy to bear while others had received various degrees of injury from breaking stones with hammer.

Mr Amoah said some of the children had died while others had been maimed. In her contribution, Mrs Emelia Oguaah of the African Centre for Human Development said an ILO survey in Ghana had revealed abuses which are even worse than what was shown that brought tears to the eyes of some of the women at the conference.

Later in an interview, Mrs Oguaah told the Ghana News Agency that the survey revealed high rates of child trafficking in certain parts of the country, citing Ningo in the Dangme District where children between the ages of 10 and 14 years are loaded on boats for long hours of fishing expeditions.

"These children who sometimes drown, are either given to the fishermen by their parents or are stolen by some people and sold to the fishermen.

The fishermen pay their parents or their captives between 500,000 cedis and 600,000 cedis annually. "Some of the children are also sent to cattle ranches where, after serving successfully for four years, their parents are given a cow for their services.

Others work on farms as labourers and the farmers pay 500,000 cedis annually to those who give them out."

Mrs Oguaah said the practice is also common in Gemini in the Kpando District where children bought by fishermen are severely maltreated and sometimes drowned by hanging heavy objects around their necks when they become very sick.

Girls, she said, work as fish processors and also serve as sex partners of their employers.

At Battor and Sogakope, children often drown when they are made to dive into rivers to collect oysters from riverbeds. She said the report, which has been sent to the ILO for consideration, would be discussed at a conference by the end of July for the necessary action to be taken.

Ms Jeanette Wijnauts, Programme Co-ordinator of UNICEF, said about 250 million children are engaged in various forms of child labour, with many working under conditions injurious to their mental, social, physical and spiritual development.

UNICEF, therefore, advocates the promotion of education, the promulgation and enforcement of international and national laws, economic empowerment of poor families, mobilisation of society and the need to make companies more responsible in their actions to stem such abuses.

Professor Patrick Addy, Deputy Minister of Youths and Sports, said the issue is very complex and called for a multi-sectoral action to address it.

Ms Janet Tornui, Regional Co-ordinator of the Ghana National Commission on Children, urged the media to be cautious in their reports so that they do not expose children to emotional distress.

They should respect the National Media Commission regulations on the protection of children and hide the identities of child victims.

Children in Need has since its formation in 1993 rescued about 100 children who were either living on the streets or engaged in dangerous trades and enrolled them in school or in vocations of their choice.