Ghana is known as the transit point of global human smuggling and human trafficking networks. Entert spoke to four smugglers from the Transporters Gang (Tette, Kwesi, Add and Zainab (pseudonyms)) in Ghana.
Smugglers use referrals or coded social media ads to target young people desperate for work and seduce other potential immigrants. The first meeting is cautious, with routes and costs negotiated.
“Smuggling fees (range) to Europe from USD 2,000 to USD 10,000,” says Tette, a graduate of the University of Ghana history school. Prices are often influenced by the perceived reliability of smuggling gangs and the reliability of the vehicle. Immigrants pay premiums from gangs who have a track record of successfully transporting immigrants to Europe.
Smugglers say immigrants are free to choose, but this choice is eroding when immigrants become fully dependent on transporters while they are moving forward. Smugglers treat human life as a tradeable commodity, and profits feed a vast network of recruiters, carriers and corrupt officials.
Tette calls his journey from Ghana through the Sahara Desert “the path of death.” There is always the risk of thieves, fears and abandonment.
Tette says immigrants from Ghana and neighboring Togo, Cote Daiboir and Burkina Faso are gathering in the Volta region. From there they are transported by gangs to Bohuk, a border town in Ghana's Upper East region. Before departing, immigrants will be explained to them on upcoming challenges, including numerous police and military checkpoints where bribery is mandatory.
However, the most dangerous checkpoints are those manufactured by smugglers. Tetteh explains how his gangs are dressed in military fatigue, how to force money from immigrants to create an atmosphere of fear and compliance.
“We make the threat horrible – prison, arrest, you name it,” he says. Some women who can't pay are sexually exploited. Tetteh condemns such conduct, but he streamlines his involvement in smuggling businesses in response to systematic unemployment. “If we don't do that, another gang would.”
The most dangerous checkpoints are those manufactured by smugglers.
In Bawku, migrants stay in overcrowded homes before being transported across the border of Burkina Faso, a seven-hour drive on a 342-km desert road. Diapaga serves as a waypoint where immigrants pay local gangs for their passage to Agadez, Niger, 1200 km away. Immigrants are crammed into open trucks and endure extreme heat, frozen nights, dehydration and violence. “The desert asserts the weak without mercy,” says Kwesi.
Agadez is a hub for immigrant smuggling and marks the beginning of the most dangerous feet of the journey. Kwesi explains that from Agadez, migrants are driving through a further 640 km through harsh desert terrain to Dirkou in Niger, a desolate front-post base for armed bandits. “They dry you out. You have to pay whatever they demand, or you can be abandoned in the relentless desert, and if you are a young woman, you will be sexually assaulted.
Tetteh agrees that everything that was taken from the migrants is not uncommon when buses are ambushed. Some drivers are part of the scam. From everywhere, armed men on fierce balaclava come out of the sand and threaten to kill everyone. The vehicle and driver will be taken, but it is probably part of the scam.
The immigrants are “leaved in the mercy of the burning sun and bones on a cold night.” They need to go to Madama, 330 km away, a transport point for immigrants heading to Libya. The conditions are dire, and immigrants face further exploitation, coercion and violence from smugglers and corrupt officials. “Immigrants have to pay again for that journey. (These) will probably die in the desert when they run out of money or their money is scam or stolen,” Tette concludes. The new target, Sabhā, is still a few hundred kilometers away.
Former fisherman Ad, who has become a smuggler, says Sabha is the “smuggler capital” and the first Libyan town on the route. Many immigrants are limited to “connection homes.” They are effectively tortured or abused in prison, forcing additional money from their families.
These payments are usually sent through informal money or Hawaiian remittances to ensure that the funds reach the smuggler or intermediary promptly and discreetly. Immigrants also risk being sold as slaves. Especially when you run out of money. The promise to continue the journey north relies on these payments and traps many migrants, including sexual exploitation, in a cycle of exploitation.
Zainab was once locked up in a Sabha connection house where she endured months of physical and sexual abuse. She abandoned her studies in political science and pursued the promise of a better life in Italy. After being tricked by a friend, Zainab finds himself trapped in a smuggled area in Libya.
Immigrants are crammed into open trucks and endure extreme heat, freezing nights, dehydration and violence
“Every night I was forced to work as a prostitute,” she says. She saved USD 1 million over seven months and eventually ran away and returned to Ghana.
In a contradiction of anguish, Zainab is currently a central figure in the transporter's smuggling business, using her experience to briefly describe women about the dangers of their journey. Known as a “counselor” among her peers, she offers advice on how to stay safe, what to do and what to avoid along the route. By advising immigrant safety, Zainab will improve the transporter's reputation and attract more clients.
“I help people achieve their dreams,” she says – a statement that reflects both the despair of immigrants and the ambiguity of smugglers. By positioning themselves as both facilitators and protectors, transporters gain the trust of vulnerable immigrants, especially women with children.
This dual role makes it very effective in precisely the manipulation, highlighting the multifaceted and often contradictory nature of human smuggling networks.
“People come to us because we don't have options,” says Add, citing the unemployment of young people and stagnant economic opportunities. A success story amplified by social media encourages families to pool resources and hopes that remittances will secure a future. “The father once asked to take his son with him. “If he doesn't leave, we'll starve.”
While immigrant smuggling is the main focus, Adoo admits that all human smuggling gangs are also smuggling drugs and weapons, especially in the coastal regions of Tema, Secondi, Elmina, Takoradi and Cape Coast. Corruption supports these operations, promotes forged documents, bypass inspections, and covers bribes to staff who ensure unhindered movement across boundaries and ports.
The smugglers interviewed by EngAct reveal that many people like Tetteh and Addo have entered trade due to economic needs. Others like Zainab were drawn into them by their personal circumstances. Smugglers often streamline their involvement in criminal activities. “We are serving those who have failed them. Why do we do this if there is a proper job?” Tetteh asks. “There's no opportunity for young people there.”
“If there's a proper job, why am I doing this?” he asks. “There's no opportunity for young people there.”
Zainab said, “If only the government can provide jobs to young people, young gangs and criminality, then only the government will decrease. I am planning to graduate from school. I have a little money now, and my daughter is 8. This is not sustainable.”
With a new government being introduced in Ghana, Tette is cautiously hopeful. “The new government has promised change to the young people, so we're waiting and seeing what happens. But no matter what happens, I don't think I'll do this in 2025. I have a little money now. I can move on.”
Irregular movement is a phenomenon in which systemic inequality, lack of local opportunities, and fuels limited legal travel paths. To address this issue, we need more than a criminal justice approach.
Ghana has a clear legislative, policy and operational framework to address irregular migration. They are in line with local and international practices, focusing on prevention, protection, prosecution and partnerships. Nevertheless, Ghanaian governments face the challenging task of changing and disrupting the tide of human smuggling of organized criminal groups that benefit from the vulnerability of smuggled migrants.
A multifaceted approach is required. This requires an approach that tracks social media that promotes smuggling, uses social media to provide countermeasures, and encourages reporting to authorities. Emphasizing the risk of irregular migration requires an increase in advocacy by Goodwill Ambassadors Kofi Kinaata and Ama K. Abareze of Ghana's International Organization for Migration.
Without these measures, it is unlikely that accounts from people like Tetteh, Zainab will decrease as people continue to seek better prospects for life elsewhere.
Feyi Ogunade establishes coordinator for West Africa's regional organized crime stations
Image: Panagiotis papadimitriou/unodc
