Child sex tourism on the rise.

02 Oct, 2006

The Ghanaian non-governmental organisation Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC) has warned of an increase in child sex tourism in the country, the Accra Mail reports. The warning, contained in a study of 86 children living in the Osu and La neighbourhoods of Accra, confirms what international monitors such as ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) have been saying for a long time: that the growth of the tourist industry in Ghana has gone hand in hand with the development of the child sex trade, especially in the Central Region and in the capital Accra.

The main victims are the countrys growing number of street children as well as child hawkers, domestic workers and children from poor homes. Tourism is one of the main sources of foreign revenue for Ghana along with cocoa, timber and mineral exports.