‘I thought I was visiting home’ — How a 12-year-old became trapped in forced labour on Lake Volta

When 12-year-old Godwin Dogbey left his home in Hohoe for what he believed would be a visit to his hometown, he was excited. Instead, Godwin was taken to an island on Lake Volta and left there. For the next three years, he was forced to work in the fishing industry, beaten when he struggled and made to enter the water despite not knowing how to swim.

What began as a journey he thought would last days turned into years of forced labour. “I felt happy that, finally, I could also boast and say I’ve been to my hometown before,” he recalls. It was only after reaching the lake that Godwin realised something was wrong.

The woman who had brought him there disappeared. The man he had been told was his uncle was, in fact, the boat master. And there was work waiting for him.

‘They would throw me into the lake,’ he says. But on the lake, that was not accepted as an excuse. He was also made to dive underwater to untangle fishing nets.

Below the surface were hazards he could not control, including submerged tree stumps and, sometimes, electric fish. “They will throw you inside the lake… so you need to swim, whatever the distance is.” The lake became his world. From 2015 to 2018, he says he worked alongside other children, some of them younger than him.

And it’s like it’s normal to them there, the boat masters themselves.” Godwin’s account offers a glimpse into how children can become trapped in trafficking networks operating around Ghana’s fishing communities. Superintendent William Ayaregah, Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Ghana Police Service, says traffickers often exploit relationships of trust. Parents may believe promises that their children will receive an education or find better opportunities.