Dr Steve Manteaw, Civil society activist

Civil society activist, Dr Steve Manteaw, has criticised the government’s decision to deport foreigners caught engaging in illegal small-scale mining instead of prosecuting and jailing them.

His call falls on the back of the statement by the Minister of the Interior, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, that foreigners caught engaging in illicit mining would be deported to their countries.

“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,” Muntaka stated on April 4, 2025, during an engagement with the Ashanti Regional Police Command in Kumasi.

The decision has been met with contempt by social society activist, Dr Manteaw, who has indicated that deportation as punishment for illegal miners is not punitive enough.

“I’m appalled by this lackluster performance in combating the galamsey menace. Even more annoying is the decision to deport rather than jail foreigners who offend our laws. Are Ghanaian offenders less human than those foreigners who offend our laws with impunity?

“This is certainly not what Ghanaians bargained for. Mahama and the NDC should be careful not to lose the public goodwill so quickly. Still watching the space,” Dr Manteaw said in a post on his Facebook page on April 9, 2025.

See post below

VOP/AE

Meanwhile, watch this captivating story of the Ghana's 100-year-old World War II veteran whose name is widely known in the Buckingham Palace, below: