Ghana’s new Tier 1 ranking in the US Trafficking in Persons Report runs for one year. Keeping it will depend on a national anti-trafficking plan that expires in December and on money for survivor services that civil society groups say is still too thin.
The State Department lifted Ghana to Tier 1 in its 2026 report, published on 8 October, after the government investigated 222 cases, prosecuted 212 suspects and convicted 28 traffickers in 2025, and identified 2,331 victims, almost three times the 794 found in 2024. Tier 1 means a government fully meets the minimum standards set by US law. It is reassessed every year.
Rankings can fall
The same report shows how quickly the status can slip. Seychelles dropped from Tier 1 to Tier 2 this year. Ghana itself spent years on Tier 2 and on the Tier 2 Watch List before this upgrade.
The 2027 report will assess what Ghana does between April 2026 and March 2027. Figures that look strong now become the baseline the country must match or beat.
A plan running out
Ghana’s Human Trafficking National Plan of Action covers 2022 to 2026. It sets out how agencies share the work of prevention, prosecution and protection under the Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694). No successor plan has yet been published. Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister Dr Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, who chairs the Human Trafficking Management Board, set Tier 1 as the board’s goal when it was reconstituted in July 2025.
Where the gaps are
The State Department identified weaknesses that could pull Ghana back. Officers lack the training and equipment to investigate trafficking tied to cybercrime and online scams. Shelter space for adult victims is short, and some officers have used their own money to support survivors. Ghanaian law still allows employers and agents to charge migrant workers recruitment fees.
International Justice Mission (IJM) Ghana, which works on child trafficking on Lake Volta, welcomed the upgrade on 9 October but called for more investment in survivor services and specialised training to tackle technology-enabled trafficking. It said resources for anti-trafficking work in rural communities remain inadequate and that children are still exploited in fishing, domestic work, street hawking, farming, mining, quarrying and herding.
Anita Budu, Director of IJM’s West Africa Programme, said thousands of children and vulnerable adults remain at risk. IJM urged the government to treat the ranking as a reason to fund frontline agencies properly, not as a sign the fight is won.
What to watch
The State Department expects identification and convictions to hold up and protection to improve. That makes the next national plan, its budget, shelter capacity for adults and a cybercrime investigation unit with proper tools the measures on which Ghana’s 2027 ranking will turn.
