Deportation Without Prosecution Is A Sin Against The Mining Law

The minister for the Interior, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, says the Mahama government has taken a firm decision to deport foreigners arrested for mining illegally without any prosecution.

Speaking to personnel of the Ghana Police Command in Kumasi recently, which was part of his working visit to Ashanti region, the minister for the Interior acknowledged the havoc illegal mining has wreaked on our environment.

According to the minister, investigations conducted by the security agencies have uncovered criminal networks involving some foreign nationals who operate in Ghana’s forests, engaging in galamsey, illegal logging and cyber fraud.

According to him, under the new government policy, foreigners arrested for galamsey and cyber fraud will rather be deported without prosecution.

“For these two crimes, when we arrest any foreigner, we are not interested in prosecuting him. Our first option is to take them back to their country. And this is something that we are very serious about,” he stated.

In his defence of this appalling decision that has been taken by the government, Ebenezer Okletey Larbi, Muntaka’s deputy. told viewers of Joynews’ PM Express programme last week Friday that the cost of housing these foreigners, the frustrating court processes and the congestion at the various prisons motivated the decision to resort to deportation instead of prosecution.

“The fact is, we know when it comes to litigation in this country, dealing with our courts, it can sometimes be very frustrating. You arrest about 80 Chinese and you have to find a place to keep them. Sometimes, even vehicles to take them to court are a problem,” he said.

While the government has decided to deport foreigners, who come to Ghana to destroy our water bodies without allowing them to face the full rigors of the law, Ghanaian citizens who are arrested for the same crime are prosecuted.

To us at The Chronicle, the government by this action seems to be favouring foreigners and against Ghanaians.

The Chronicle, therefore, agrees with security expert, Prof. Kwasi Aning, who has described the approach as “not only ineffective, but deeply damaging to Ghana’s sovereignty and justice system. This is a policy that will serve as an attraction for even worse criminals to come.

In 2018, the notorious galamsey queen, Aisha Hung, a Chinese national, was deported after the state filed nolle prosequi to discontinue her trial and four others for engaging in illegal mining. Then Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo in 2019, justified the deportation without prosecution.

He justified the action by saying Ghana has a good relationship with China, citing at the time that the company that had agreed to the Sinohydro project was a Chinese company. He went on to say that jailing the lady was not going to solve Ghana’s problem.

What Osafo Maafo said then, which was highly condemned by those in power today, perhaps explains the decision to deport without prosecution, because as he said, Ghana had a good relationship with China and “a lot happens behind the scenes.”

The Chronicle does not, however, belong to this school of thought – prosecution of Ghanaians and freeing of foreigners. The government knows that these foreigners are mostly the financiers whilst the citizens security agencies arrest at the galamsey sites are only workers.

Under the Minerals and Mining Amendment Act 2019 (Act 995), a foreigner arrested for engaging in illegal mining must be prosecuted and, if sentenced, serve the full term before being deported. Thus, the decision by the government to deport them without prosecution is unlawful, and we think it must be rescinded, or perhaps the law amended to support the current decision.

The present law states clearly that foreign illegal miners shall face a fine of not less than one hundred thousand penalty units and not more than three hundred thousand penalty units.

They also face a term of imprisonment of not less than twenty years and not more than twenty-five years or both.

It also states that, “Where a non-Ghanaian who is liable on summary conviction under subsection (3) is a person liable to deportation under section 35 of the Immigration Act, 200 (Act 573), that non-Ghanaian shall, where sentenced to a term of imprisonment, serve the full sentence before deportation in accordance with subsection (3) of section 37 of Act 573.”

We urge the government to adhere to the provisions of the law in the fight against galamsey in order to safeguard the sovereignty and dignity of Ghana. Deporting foreign illegal miners without prosecution is a sin against the mining law.

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