Ghana Arrests 55 illegal Gold Miners, Including Nigerians

Ghana’s police have arrested at least 55 West Africans suspected of illegal gold mining, an immigration spokesman has told the BBC. The arrests suggest that the police’s focus has shifted away from Chinese miners to African miners, reports the BBC Akwasi Sarpong from Ghana.

The authorities freed 124 Chinese nationals at the weekend and ordered them to leave the country. Ghanaian law prevents foreigners from working in smallscale gold mines. Ghana is Africa’s biggest gold producer after South Africa. The raids are popular with many poor Ghanaians who feel that foreigners are taking jobs from them, according to BBC.

Immigration spokesman Francis Palmdeti told the BBC that of the 55 arrested, 51 were from Niger, three from Togo and one from Nigeria. Identity checks were being done on three other detainees after they claimed they were Ghanaians, not Malians, as suspected, he said.

The raid shows that officials are bent on stopping any non- Ghanaian from getting involved in artisanal mining, BBC has disclosed.

The suspects are being screened at an immigration detention centre in the capital, Accra