An undercover investigation by British media has revealed alleged misconduct by the International Justice Mission (IJM), a well-funded US anti-slavery charity, in Ghana.
The report, released earlier this week, alleges that IJM has wrongfully removed children from their families and led to the prosecution of their relatives as traffickers, causing significant harm and distress.
According to the media, the investigation has confirmed two documented cases in which Ghanaian police, acting under the direction of IJM, conducted late-night raids and removed children from their families.
The relatives of the children, some of whom were also taken in these raids, were then prosecuted for trafficking. This resulted in financial devastation and social ostracism for those who won their cases, or were separated from their children for years if they did not.
One of the cases mentioned in the report is the September 2022 raid known as 'Operation Hilltop', in which four children, including 11-year-old Fatima, were taken from the village of Mogyigna. Fatima was forcibly separated from her grandmother while the elderly woman was held at gunpoint, and two of Fatima's uncles were subsequently arrested.
Discrepancies in IJM's actions
Undercover reporting revealed discrepancies in the IJM's actions. While staff members informed the police and social services that the children were trafficked for forced labor on Lake Volta, the group's own legal officer admitted in an internal WhatsApp group chat that there were "no elements of trafficking" in three of the four cases, and the fourth case was disputed by the child's family.
Nevertheless, the children were removed based on their alleged risk of child labor, and they were held in an IJM shelter for over four months without contact with their families. Ghanaian social services later confirmed that no trafficking had occurred.
The children were eventually returned to their families, but not before Fatima's grandfather passed away and her uncles, who had been prosecuted for child trafficking and child labor, had exhausted their savings on transportation to court and bail hearings.
"My grandfather was very loving, he used to give us gifts," Fatima was quoted as saying. "When I came back, I was crying and wondering, since my grandfather has left us, where would we see him again?"
The media reported that IJM's lawyer stood in for the prosecutor during one of the trials, highlighting the organization's deep involvement in the West African country's prosecutorial system.
IJM's quota system
According to an IJM investigator who spoke to an undercover reporter who joined the US organization, the NGO operates on a quota system that requires a certain number of rescues and prosecutions each year.
Failure to meet these targets could result in pay cuts or even job losses.
The report stressed that retrieving children from raids was seen as non-negotiable, with one staffer stating, "We can't say we didn't get even one child, we need to get some."
IJM, which receives more than $100 million in annual funding, defended its rescue and prosecution targets as necessary to combat child trafficking, but denied there were penalties for failing to meet them.
The Washington, DC-based organization described 'Operation Hilltop' as a success.