A Ghanaian national living abroad exclaimed rather frustratingly ‘what at all do these Chinese want from us’ when she read the umpteenth news report about the arrest of a couple of Chinese engaged in illegal mining activities.
Her frustration is shared by all Ghanaians but those involved in the illegality and others benefitting indirectly from it.
No week elapses without a Chinese being arrested for breaching our laws in the mining sector. We consider this impunity an insult because of the rate at which it is being committed even when the mongoloids know they are breaching our laws.
As we pointed out sometime ago, no Ghanaian can breach Chinese law the way our unwanted guests are doing in this country. Imagine Ghanaians traveling to China to undertake activities on the Yangtze or Yellow River in a manner which leaves these bodies of water polluted. Such persons could easily pick the death penalty. The fact is that no Ghanaian would dare engage in illegal activities in this restricted society such as China.
Is our country so loose as to allow easy access to Chinese who are unable to show what they intend doing in the country? And why would locals connive with them to destroy our environment?
There are as many Chinese arrested as are those who continue to live in gold-bearing parts of the country destroying our environment regardless of the national campaign against galamsey activities.
In ideal situations, ours is not of course, the locals would join hands to protect our water bodies and halt the degradation of the environment, especially when the acts are especially perpetrated by foreigners. It can be likened to an invasion of non-Ghanaians with our compatriots supporting them in the unwieldy mission.
We are not xenophobic. We are too civilized to contemplate treading on that path. All we are worried about is the fact that the Chinese have, by their impunity, been contemptuous of not our laws but of our persons as Ghanaians in our own country.
It would be instructive to find out how these persons enter this country. Immigration officers at the points of entry must satisfy themselves that those entering from foreign lands are coming here to do identifiable jobs which the law allows them to engage in. Out of curiosity, we would want to know what these Chinese galamseyers tell the immigration officers when they go through arrival formalities or when they to our mission in their country.
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) personnel at the the Kotoka International Airport should be able to do something effectively towards controlling the influx of gold-seeking Chinese in this country.
The impunity must stop. Perhaps another look must be given the anti-galamsey laws. They could be too weak and therefore of minimal punitive effect. As for their local collaborators, they must be given stiffer punishments.
The MMDCEs and the chiefs must be engaged in these efforts so that the Chinese are not allowed to meddle with our water bodies and forests.