Ghanaian children have been taken from their homes in an operation backed by one of the world's leading anti-slavery organisations, a BBC Africa Eye investigation has revealed.
The multimillion-dollar charity, International Justice Mission, aims to rescue trafficked children and reunite them with their families. But serious concerns have been raised about their West African operations.
The BBC's Africa Eye reports that a little after midnight on September 6, 2022, Musah Mustafa emerged from his thatched-roof hut to relieve himself and saw four cars speeding towards his village.
Mogyigna was barely a village. With just a handful of family homes and two dozen people in total, it was more like a dot in the middle of an expanse of farmland in northern Ghana. Cars were a rare sight during the day, let alone at night. Musah hid behind a tree and watched. When he saw armed men from the cars approach the two homes, he shouted in an attempt to wake the other residents.
But before anyone could act, the men entered the huts and forcibly removed four children, carrying an 11-year-old girl called Fatima by her arms and legs from the room where she had been sleeping with her grandparents.
Fatima, 11, was taken from her family's home in the middle of the night
A gun pointed at her neck, Fatima's grandmother Sana pleaded with the men. She did not understand why the children were being taken away. Two of the children's uncles were also taken. Sana feared she would never see her relatives again.
In the eyes of Mogyigna's villagers, a violent kidnapping had taken place.
But this was not a kidnapping.
Officially, it was a rescue operation carried out by Ghanaian police officers, under Ghana's Human Trafficking Act. The children were transferred into the care of social services.
The operation was instigated by IJM.
With around $100m (£78m) in funding annually over the past two years, IJM is one of the world's leading anti-trafficking organisations.
But this was not a kidnapping.
Officially, it was a rescue operation carried out by Ghanaian police officers, under Ghana's Human Trafficking Act. The children were transferred into the care of social services.
The operation was instigated by IJM.
With around $100m (£78m) in funding annually over the past two years, IJM is one of the world's leading anti-trafficking organisations.
Fatima is now back in the village, under the care of her grandmother Sana, while Mohammed's father decided the boy should live elsewhere, as did the father of the other two children.
When Africa Eye visited Mogyigna, five months after the rescue, villagers there told us they were happy the children had been returned, but they said the after-effects of Operation Hilltop were still being felt.
Fatima said that she was afraid the BBC team had come to take her away again.
"I was terrified and I started crying," the 11-year-old said about the night of Operation Hilltop. "I thought they were taking us away to kill us. We didn't know where they were taking us."
While in the shelter she thought her "grandmother, grandfather, uncles had died".
"When I was taken away, I cried a lot while thinking about my family," she added.
Fatima's uncles, Nantogma Abukari and Sayibu Alhassan, were arrested during the operation.
They were prosecuted on charges of child trafficking and child labour and spent all their savings to attend court and bail hearings. Every return trip to court cost them more than 1,500 Ghana cedis ($132; £104) in travel - the equivalent of almost two months' work.
Prosecutions are an essential part of IJM's anti-slavery model, as the charity argues they serve as a deterrent. Court documents show that an IJM lawyer stood in for the state prosecutor in one of the court hearings.
The uncles' case was eventually dropped and their names cleared, but it continues to dog them. Some members of their family no longer speak to them, they said, driven by a suspicion that they had "colluded" in some way "with the people who took the children away".
Responding to the BBC's inquiries about Fatima's case, IJM maintained that its mission had successfully relocated the four children with their fathers to a safer location.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0