7 out of 10 human trafficking cases in Ghana never reach prosecution — JoyNews Research

The figures mean fewer than three in every ten recorded cases proceeded to prosecution, the basis for this story's headline finding: seven out of every ten human trafficking cases reported in Ghana over the last nine years never reached a courtroom.

Nine years, 7,407 victims Behind the case numbers is a wider human toll: officials identified 7,407 human trafficking victims in Ghana between 2017 and 2025; an average of more than 800 a year, though the true number is almost certainly higher, since these figures capture only cases that came to the attention of investigators.

JoyNews put these questions to Nana Ama Doe Badu, a Justice System Associate with the International Justice Mission (IJM), which supports Ghana's criminal justice institutions, particularly in agricultural communities around Lake Volta, in combating human trafficking.