Challenging Heights rescues 25 children trafficked for forced labour on Lake Volta

Twenty-five children, aged between six and 14, have been removed from forced labour on Lake Volta in a weekend operation led by Challenging Heights with Ghana’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit and Department of Social Welfare.

The rescued group includes 18 boys and seven girls. Challenging Heights said the imbalance reflects a wider pattern in fishing-related trafficking on the lake, where children are taken from their families, kept out of school and exposed to hazardous work. The children came from several communities in the Bono East and Northern regions.

All 25 were transferred to the organisation’s Recovery Centre. There, they are receiving medical care, psychosocial support and recovery services. The announcement was made on National Children’s Day, whose theme calls for children’s voices to be amplified on abuse and for stronger protection, participation and advocacy.

Challenging Heights said an estimated 3.4 million children in Ghana experience physical or emotional abuse, while almost one in five children aged five to 17 is involved in child labour. It also cited estimates that about 20,000 children are trafficked or forced to work in the fishing industry on Lake Volta, and that nearly 90% of children working there suffer physical, emotional or verbal abuse.

The organisation called for more resources for Ghana’s anti-trafficking and social welfare institutions, along with timely investigations, rescue operations, care and prosecutions. It said it has rescued nearly 3,000 children and young people over more than two decades, and that it and its partners supported the rescue of 144 trafficking and modern-slavery victims in the first half of 2026.