Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGC­SP), Francisca Oteng-Mensah, says urgent actions are needed to curb new modes of human trafficking in the country.

Among others, she said, the new modes of trafficking involved “trafficking into the streets,” a phenomenon where people were deceptively moved from the village to the streets of big cities as beggars.

Curing these modes, she said, was crucial to safeguard the rights and freedoms of human traffick­ing victims across the country.

Ms Oteng-Mensah said this during a courtesy call on her by the International Justice Mis­sion (IJM) Ghana, an NGO that supports authorities to respond to and combat human trafficking, in Accra.

She explained that beggars were saddled with debt bondage arising from their transportation to the city and given a daily quota of sales to make to be able to earn their freedom after a period.

“Each morning and evening several of them, packed inside a vehicle, are dropped and picked at vantage points in the city respectively before and after working for their masters,” she added.

Ms Oteng-Mensah said that was intelligence picked from the National Security and the BNI.

She underscored that human trafficking and social vices were of great concern to the ministry, for which reason all hands were needed on deck to eradicate the menace.

The Deputy Minister used the opportunity to commend the IJM Ghana for its work, indicating that “human trafficking is a head­ache for all of us”.

She went on to thank the IJM officers for the kind words and congratulatory messages on her appointment, and the interest to keep working with the ministry and the relevant secretariats under it.

Ms Oteng-Mensah also con­gratulated Anita Budu, Director of IJM West Africa, on her appointment as new director for IJM West Africa, adding, “I am particularly happy that we have a woman occupying this position. I want to assure you of my assis­tance and commitment”.