Challenging Heights, a non-governmental organisation, has rescued 11 children from forced labour on Volta Lake.

The children rescued were made up of nine males and two females, and were between the ages of eight and sixteen.

The NGO says most of the children worked as child fishermen for several years without attending school and are subject to various forms of abuse.

This brings to 1,700, the number of boys and girls the organisation has rescued from slavery in fishing communities in Ghana since its establishment in 2003.

Challenging Heights is a local Ghanaian antislavery organisation with the long-term goal of safeguarding the rights of children to education, particularly those affected by human trafficking and modern slavery.

The organisation recently released a comprehensive report on child labour and says it remains resolute in its fight against child labour, and exploitation, especially in the fishing sector in Ghana.

The report which is titled “hidden in plain sight” highlighted the plight of children in the fishing communities, indicating that 60% of children on Volta lake are child labourers.

Speaking to Citi News, President of Challenging Heights, James Kofi Annan said the efforts of the Ghana Police Service, the Department of Social Welfare, and the Ghana Navy helped in ensuring that the eleven children were rescued.

“The current rescue mission contributes to reducing the problem of child labour on the Volta Lake and as Challenging Heights we are happy because we are helping safeguard children from modern-day slavery. In total, we rescued eleven children on the Volta Lake who were being subjected to all forms of activities both males and females of different ages,” the President of Challenging Heights told Citi News.

“The efforts of state agencies such as the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Navy, and the Department of Social Welfare helped us in achieving this success,” James Kofi Annan said.

Globally it is estimated that there are over 40 million human beings caught up in slavery and the slave traders generate over 50 billion dollars annually.

In Ghana alone, the Global Slavery Index put the number of people in slavery at 133,000, according to Walk Free Foundation.