Ghana Arrests Chinese in Gold Mines

[JayAtl]

DAKAR, Senegal — The authorities in Ghana have conducted sweeping arrests of Chinese citizens in the nation’s gold-mining regions, officials said Thursday, the latest sign of tensions between a sub-Saharan African nation and the global power that has become the continent’s largest trading partner.

Police, immigration and intelligence officials have swooped down on Chinese gold miners in Ghana, Africa’s second-largest gold producer, rounding up 169 Chinese citizens since June 1 and detaining them for deportation, according to immigration officials in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

“It’s an ongoing operation,” said Michael Amoako-Atta, an immigration spokesman in Ghana, saying the Chinese had entered the country through “unapproved routes” or overstayed visas to engage in illegal mining. The government crackdown will continue, he added, “until we are clear that such kind of illegalities have ceased.”

The small-scale mining activities of Chinese who have flooded into Ghana’s gold-producing regions have stirred resentment in the West African nation, which is dependent on China for both trade and investment yet is also flexing its muscles as a new oil producer and one of the region’s strongest economies.

The mines have left the countryside dotted with holes, polluted water supplies and raised accusations that the Chinese use Ghanaians as fronts in order to practice small-scale mining from which foreigners are otherwise barred. In October, a Chinese miner was shot by Ghanaian security forces, raising frictions.

In the capital on Thursday, a bus loaded with arrested Chinese miners was seen heading from the Ghanaian immigration headquarters to a court hearing. The headquarters’ holding cell was full of arrested miners, many of whom clustered around the cell’s solitary door to stare out at passers-by. The Chinese Embassy in Accra confirmed that its citizens were in detention and had not been seriously hurt, according to a statement posted on its Web site.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/w...chinese-in-gold-mining-regions.html?ref=world

 

[armchairPrivate]

^^^^

Back at you

India worried more about illegal workers - Economic Times

NEW DELHI: A high-level Indian delegation will hold talks with Saudi Arabian officials in the last week of April to discuss the issues arising out of the kingdom's crackdown on illegal labour, but won't raise the issue of Nitaqat, a set of new labour laws that makes it mandatory for companies to employ Saudi nationals.


Vayalar Ravi, minister of overseas Indian affairs, E. Ahmed, minister of state for external affairs and T K A Nair, advisor to the prime minister, will be among the delegation that will meet senior Saudi officials later this month.

Saudi's crackdown on irregular labourers and the new labour laws have triggered fears of extradition and unemployment among millions of Indian workers in the Kingdom, most of whom are from Kerala. Ravi told ET that Indian government was trying to help irregular workers acquire proper documentation.

"The discussions will address issues of illegal immigration and how best to tackle them. We have been having discussions with Indian states and have asked them to initiate steps to plug illegal immigration. We will now extend the discussion to the government of Saudi Arabia as well," he said.

India's unofficial estimates are that at least one lakh Indian workers in Saudi Arabia alone might be found to have inadequate documentation or to be working in violation of laws. Earlier, Saudi did not strictly enforce many rules.

As a result, people could work for employers other than their sponsors and also take up jobs that were not mentioned on their work permits. Now, the kingdom is strictly enforcing these rules, and immigrant workers, many of whom are illeterate and have been duped by unscruplous visa agents, find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

An estimated 6 million Indians work in the gulf countries; some 2.45 million work in Saudi Arabia alone. A majority of them are from Kerala, but large numbers are also from Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. State governments have begun crackdown on visa agents who were duping or misleading aspiring immigrants.

External affairs minister Salman Khurshid said over the weekend in Berlin that the new law will only affect illegal workers and the removal of illegal workers would in fact open the doors for genuine workers. Some 4,000 Indian workers have already informed the Indian embassy in Riyadh that they lack proper documentation.

Ravi said his ministry was trying to work with large Indian companies operating in Saudi Arabia to see if some of the workers who will lose their jobs in the wake of the crackdown could be absorbed.

"We are also holding talks with some of the big employers of Indian workers in the region including Ravi Pillai the MD of Nasser S Al-Hajri Corporation, one of the largest employers of Indian workers, to help rehabilitate some of the workers who may lose their jobs and right to remain in Saudi Arabia following the crackdown," the minister said.

The Saudi government has announced a window of three months for irregular workers to try and obtain proper documentation. "While some of the employers have assured us that they will look into the problem, they can employ only those workers with the skillsets required by them," minister Ravi added.

Significantly, MOIA has signed bilateral labour, employment and manpower development MoUs with many Gulf nations including UAE, Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar; but so far a similar agreement with the Saudi government has not been signed despite the kingdom being the destination of the largest number of workers from India. "If it was in place, that would have helped us to deal with problems faced by Indian workers in a better way," the minister said.

 

[JayAtl]

^^^^The new Labor laws changed that position and made 10's of thousands of Asians ( not just Indians ) as now illegal. Understand the difference kiddo. They changed their laws...to not allow anyone to change jobs .

 

[Mujraparty]

Chinese gold miners abused and raped Ghanaians, says online report

Chinese gold miners arrested this week in a raid in Ghana have been accused of raping and abusing locals.

A first-person account making the allegations emerged on China’s social media on Thursday after some web users speculated that Ghana police had mistreated the miners amid a crackdown.

It follows state media reports that 124 Chinese gold prospectors suspected of illegal mining in the west African country were detained by local police. A majority of the workers are from Shanglin, Guangxi province.

The Chinese embassy in Ghana said no Chinese citizens detained were injured, but confusion and anger intensified among the Chinese online community after rumours claimed that Chinese-owned factories were burned down and several Chinese workers were killed during the raid.

Many say the diary - headlined “Insults and discrimination towards the locals are spreading like a plague [in Ghana]” - has offered a rare glimpse into the feud between Chinese workers and locals.

“I wouldn’t be surprised If one day, anti-Chinese incidents happen here in Ghana,” wrote the author at the beginning of his article. The writer, who has lived in Ghana and is not identified as a miner, wanted to stay anonymous, said a friend who spoke to the South China Morning Post.

The article accuses the thousands of Shanglin gold miners of abusing Ghanaian workers “on a daily basis”.

“[The locals] work the dirtiest and toughest jobs, but are fed the most terrible food - worse than what the Chinese feed their dogs,” it said.

The Chinese insulted the locals whenever they wanted and called them disrespectful nicknames, it said.

The diary also accused the Chinese of regularly raping and harassing local female workers. Out of fear they might lose their job, locals kept quiet and let the Chinese have their way, it said.

In one incident, a Ghanaian worker was shot by a Chinese worker for unknown reasons. After, the Chinese person allegedly said indifferently: “What a pity he wasn’t killed”, according to the diary.

“I asked [the Chinese] why they don’t treat locals like humans,” the author wrote, “but they never gave me a straight answer.”

Hu Jinghua, a Shenzhen engineer who posted the article on Weibo, told the Post that it was written months ago by his friend. Hu said the stories were based on his friend's experiences.

The post was reposted more than 8,000 times on Weibo by noon on Thursday and seemed to have shocked many readers.

“If the accounts were true, then those people deserve to be jailed and persecuted,” said a microblogger.

“I am not surprised - judging by how the Chinese treat their own mine workers at home,” said another.

Another blogger who had lived in Ghana 12 years ago said he was shocked how things had changed since he left.

“When I lived there, we got along well with locals,” he said. “ We often drank and partied together.”

An estimated 50,000 gold diggers, known as “the Shanglin gang", work in Ghana’s gold mines, Africa's largest producer of the metal after South Africa. Many say they have been lured to the foreign land after hearing friends and relatives' outrageous stories of their success.

Ghana's government has accused the Chinese prospectors of working without permits and said their mining methods - often unregulated - polluted rivers and lakes.

Residents in Shanglin staged a protest outside their township government on Thursday, urging the Chinese government to protect Shanglin workers in Ghana, according to Weibo photos and accounts.

In one photo, they are seen holding a red banner that read: ”The Chinese embassy in Ghana did nothing."

The protest comes as other photos are being shared on Weibo, allegedly taken in Ghana, showing graphic images of Chinese people attacked and killed.

Chinese gold miners abused and raped Ghanaians, says online report | South China Morning Post

 

[Mujraparty]

Impotent President as Chinese Rape Ghana | Feature Article 2013-06-06


I am angry and disappointed with the leadership or lack of leadership on the part of John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana. My disappointment and anger is about his lack of leadership concerning illegal Chinese miners ravaging Ghana. Per the laws of Ghana, small and medium scale mining is reserved for Ghanaians and Ghanaians only. But what are we seeing? Chinese of all heights, shapes, colors, and characters are wantonly engaging in mining activities all over Ghana. The activities of the Chinese is so brazen that they carry guns in the open; AK47s to be specific.


There is an old African saying that if you play with a dog, it will lick your lips. It looks like our penchant for borrowing and accepting any and every aid, has finally caught up with us. We took Chinese money and accepted terms that included Chinese laborers to build the four stadia for CAN 2008 (Thank you JAK and Mr. Uglyman Osafo Marfo) . Didn't we have enough laborers in Ghana? Didn't we have enough unemployed in Ghana? Well, the Chinese came and built the stadia, impregnated local girls, and never left. Like ants, they went back with word of a country ripe for the picking. Just so you know there are a billion plus in the nest waiting to invade Ghana.

Fast forward to 2013 and more Chinese are streaming into Ghana. Apparently, word has gotten back to the overcrowded 'nest' that Ghana is a place where the law is broken. An impotent and dummy president has succeeded another dummy president. Any foreigner can lease a piece of land and start digging for gold. Then more Chinese came. And the Triads and gangs got involved. They started smuggling even more Chinese and equipment and then guns. Your guess is as good as mine- Chinese made AK47s into Ghana.


The end result is a Chinese takeover of small and medium scale mining in Ghana-the very preserve for Ghanaians for which all foreigners are barred. Then the nonsense started. Local we're being displaced from their lands. Locals were being bought for their lands. Locals were getting killed for standing up for their lands. The end results: Forest reserves invaded, Farms and plantations destroyed, Streams and rivers polluted, Landscape destroyed. Then to add insult to injury a Chinese official had the nerve to tell a Ghanaian minister to control media reporting of incidents involving illegal Chinese miners. For his information, the press in Ghana is free to report what they deem fit, unlike the muzzled, shackled, and toothless media in China.

 

[Hellraiser007]

124 Chinese arrested in Ghana for illegal gold mining, raping women

Beijing: Police in Ghana have arrested 124 Chinese nationals on charges of illegal gold mining, some of whom were also accused of raping the locals.



The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) yesterday announced that 124 suspected Chinese illegal miners were detained in Accra, the capital of the West African country.

Francis Palmdeti, the head of public affairs of the GIS, told that the Chinese arrestees were involved in illegal gold mining in the central region of Ashanti, as well as in western and eastern regions, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Some of them have overstayed without legal documents. The GIS are conducting further investigation to decide how many of them should be repatriated.

The Chinese Embassy in Ghana has confirmed the arrests.

"We have cautioned all the Chinese people in Ghana to strictly abide by the related laws and regulations and never to be misled by the unauthorised information in Internet, " Embassy's spokenperson Yu Jie said.

The reports take the shine of China's much advertised friendly policy to Africa where Beijing is sinking billions of dollars of investments in various projects in different African countries.

After the arrests, state-run media here reported today that officials in Shanglin County in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region asked locals from going to Republic of Ghana for gold mining.

Most of the miners who went to Ghana were reportedly from Shanglin and a number those who were arrested on charges of illegal mining were from here, according to a report in the China Daily website.

But a report in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said they were arrested on the charges of raping local women.

A statement from the Shanglin government said that the "gold rush" started in 2006.

Currently around 12,000 Chinese from Shanglin were engaged in gold mining in Ghana, it said but unofficial estimates put the number over 50,000.

Chinese gold miners arrested this week in a raid in Ghana have been accused of raping and abusing locals, the Post report said.

A first-person account making the allegations emerged on China's social media today after some web users speculated that Ghana police had mistreated the miners amid a crackdown.

The Chinese embassy in Ghana said no Chinese citizens detained were injured, but confusion and anger intensified among the Chinese online community after rumours claimed that Chinese-owned factories were burned down and several Chinese workers were killed during the raid.

The Post quoted the diary of an unidentified writer of Ghana as saying that thousands of Chinese workers are abusing Ghanaian workers "on a daily basis".

The local people in Ghana "work the dirtiest and toughest jobs, but are fed the most terrible food - worse than what the Chinese feed their dogs," the report said.

The write-up also accused the Chinese of regularly raping and harassing local female workers.

Out of fear they might lose their job, locals kept quiet and let the Chinese have their way, it said.

In one incident, a Ghanaian worker was shot by a Chinese worker for unknown reasons.

After, the Chinese person allegedly said indifferently: "What a pity he wasn't killed", according to the diary.

An estimated 50,000 gold diggers, known as "the Shanglin gang", work in Ghana's gold mines, Africa's largest producer of the metal after South Africa.

Many say they have been lured to the foreign land after hearing friends and relatives' outrageous stories of their success.

Ghana's government has accused the Chinese prospectors of working without permits and said their mining methods - often unregulated - polluted rivers and lakes, the Post report said.

 

[Mujraparty]

wonder why not even a single HIGH IQ Chinese member commenting on this thread ..

124 Chinese miners detained, allegedly abused by Ghanaian authorities: Shanghaiist

chines rapists getting thrashed by locals

 

[soaringeagle]

With 12000-50000 people all from a same town seeking opportunities in a foreign country, there are always some bad apples. Regardless of Nationality, for those who have enter the country illegally, the host country has the right to deport them.
For those who have been proven to committed a crime, they deserved to be punished.
As for the pictures, if he is a proven rapist, he deserved it (and more). If he is just a miner, then it is not right.

The latest news is that those 124 arrested are getting release and the embassy is assisting them to leave the country.

 

[Zero_wing]

Man this people are just rude good save by the Ghana authorities i hope i can say about the illegals here in the Philippines