Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, the Interior Minister has revealed that about 92 Chinese foreigners involved in illegal mining have been deported since he took office.
Reports gathered suggest among the 107, 92 Chinese nationals have already been deported with an additional 13 individuals set to be deported.
According to the minister, any foreigner caught in the act of galamsey activities will just be deported.
Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka speaking in an engagement with Imams and Zongo Chiefs on Thursday, April 3, stated, “Galamsey is one of Ghana’s biggest challenges. We’ve seen that some Chinese and some foreign nationals engage in this illegality. So we have said that when such persons are caught engaging in such illegality like galamsey or fraud, we will deport them back to their countries”.
“If we arrest any foreigner in that illegality, we will just deport the person,” he added.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah the lands minister has stated illegal miners commonly known as galamseyers must be seen as dangerous terrorists who are killing us.
The Lands minister noted that a few people cannot be allowed to make money at the expense of killing millions of Ghanaians.
Speaking at a Press conference on Thursday, April 3, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah stated, “We can’t allow few people to make money at the expense of millions of Ghanaians and kill us, we must now begin to see them as dangerous terrorists who are killing us”.
“You cannot have a country where your water systems are so polluted that the turbidity levels are 5,000 to 12,000 when it should be 500, it means we are drinking poison,” he bemoaned.
He further added, “If anybody wants to do genuine small-scale mining, this government is committed to guiding them, giving them licenses, and guiding them on the path of doing small-scale mining in a more responsible and sustainable manner,” he said.
“This is what must be a collective fight”, he added.
The Lands minister further revealed government plans to fight galamsey, he stated government will begin geotagging and geofencing excavators imported into Ghana.
“We believe that this programme of geotagging and geofencing must be expanded to include excavators as soon as they arrive at the ports. It doesn’t make any sense that the third most valuable item we import into this country, worth 6.2 billion cedis, is excavators,”
“These machines are brought here to destroy our forest reserves, pollute our water bodies, and harm our people. This must stop,” he stated boldly.
