Daily Jot readers are extremely interested in our efforts to stop human trafficking. Here is an update as it’s been over three years since Pastor William Agbeti’s ministry saved a young Ghanaian girl from being lured into sex slavery in Dubai. He reports: “With the support of the DAILY JOT, we have managed to put her out of harm’s way to pursue vocational training. Soon she will graduate to start a dignified life. Free the Slaves, a nonprofit organization, puts the global modern-day slave trade at a whopping $150 billion per annum, generated by some 40 million slaves, including Ghanaian girls! FTS categorizes modern-day slavery into four sub-sectors: child prostitution, forced marriage, human trafficking and child labor.
“In 2018, forensic investigators from the US arrived in Ghana at the invitation of the government to assist the country in resolving developments involving a growing number of missing and kidnapped Ghanaian girls. Investigations we carried out on our own revealed the operation of a syndicate, a member of which approached our young girl to lure her into modern-day slavery. These miscreants look for young and exceptionally beautiful girls faced with social challenges like parental neglect, unemployment, inability to go to school, financial hardship, hunger, lack of accommodation and other forms of hardship. The most sought for girls are virgins, the preferred choice of many slave owners!
“Under the guise of lucrative employment opportunities overseas, many of these virgins are sold to wealthy individuals in the Middle East. Sometimes, these girls are auctioned at secret locations or cleverly presented for bidding on social media sites! Those who have passports are told to report at the Accra International Airport for sponsored direct flights to the Middle East. Our very fortunate girl was shown a place in Accra to report at and join a bus to a neighboring country, on route to Dubai. We reported the place and the people behind its operations to the authorities. Fortunately, as she went about preparing for what would have been a fateful journey of no return, she ran into our Ministry and was saved!
“Testimonies from some slave girls reaching us in Ghana via mobile phone and WhatsApp voice messages from the Middle East, indicate that many of those who make the journey end up enslaved, sexed multiple times a day, sick and dead. Those who are able to send such distress messages back home can’t be helped because they can’t be traced. They don’t even know their locations or the names of the slave masters. When they become sick, they are not treated. When they die, their bodies are dumped.” As you can see, this is just one of the many facets of our ministry work in Ghana. Christ said in Luke 17:2, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Our goal is to prevent the offense in the first place.
