Ghana arrests 168 Chinese nationals in illegal mining crackdown

Arrests follow series of pit collapses in which dozens have died, and highlight social and environmental challenges of China's presence in Africa

Ghanaian authorities have arrested 168 Chinese citizens for illegal goldmining, highlighting the social and environmental challenges posed by China's growing presence on the continent.

In a six-day operation which began on Saturday and ended on Thursday morning, police and immigration officials made the arrests in the Ashanti and western regions of the country. Ghanaian authorities said it was part of a crackdown which would continue until all illegal miners had been removed from the country.

"We have arrested 168 Chinese nationals, all of whom are being detained and processed for court," said Michael Amoako-Atta, spokesman for the Ghana immigration service. He said that each of the detainees faced a fine of 2,000 Ghana cedis (around £670) for working illegally in the country and deportation.

The arrests are the latest by Ghanaian immigration, police and military authorities. Some 120 illegal miners were arrested in March. Most have been repatriated to China, while the rest are waiting for travel documents.

"Illegal mining in Ghana has assumed alarming proportions and has got to the point where it is threatening the survival of our water bodies," said Charles Wereko, spokesman for the ministry of lands and natural resources.

"Foreign nationals, especially the Chinese, have made the problem a lot worse. Unlike Ghanaians they have access to huge funds which they have been using to bring an enormous number of excavators into the country, which can destroy large areas of forest in just one day. The rate of destruction is such that, if it is not stopped, Ghana will not have any forest left.

"This operation is going to continue until all illegal miners are removed."

The arrests follow a series of pit collapses in which dozens of Ghanaian illegal miners have died, raising concern about the prevalence of the practice in Africa's second-largest gold producer after South Africa.

"Most of these illegal miners use very dangerous substances like cyanide and mercury in processing their ore, which are not biodegradable and leach into the water bodies creating serious problems for the communities who use these sources of water as drinking water," said Wereko.

"The extent of this illegality is so bad that now the state agency for processing water to provide clean drinking water for most of the communities in Ghana is not able to do their work, because the cost of cleaning up water has become too expensive."

Last month the Ghanaian president, John Dramani Mahama, established a high-level taskforce to bring "sanity" into the mining sector. "I am sending a clear signal to the offending individuals and groupings that the government will not allow their activities to cause conflict, dislocation, environmental degradation and unemployment when in fact the sector should rather benefit our communities and our country," Mahama told journalists in May.

But he has also sought to soothe relations with the Chinese – who are spending billions of dollars on construction and infrastructure projects in Ghana – and cautioned against the vilification of Chinese immigrants.