There’s a saying in Ghana: where there is gold, there is suffering. But what we found at Prestea Bondaye takes that suffering to a whole new level.
This isn’t a story about illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) that we are all tired of hearing. This is about a licensed Chinese mining company, Longshine, operating on Swed Mining’s concessions. They were lawfully ejected. But what was left behind after their departure is a situation that has the Trade Union Congress (TUC) fuming.
The acting Western Regional Secretary of the TUC, Richard Hanson, is now demanding that city authorities and labour regulators step up. He wants a disciplined and safe working environment for Ghanaian workers something he says these miners never had.
Following the ejection of Longshine, deeper investigations uncovered what officials are calling a sad situation.
This is Prestea Bondaye. The earth here is so rich with gold you’d think the people digging it would live like kings. But evidence and testimonies tell a different story. The miners were living in poverty.
Workers allege they were paid as little as 1,000 cedis a month. Can you imagine? No days off. No rest. And when t hey fell sick? They paid the price literally.
Instead of receiving medical care, sick workers claim deductions were made from their already miserable salaries.
Richard Hanson doesn’t mince words. He calls these “slave-like conditions.”
“This is a violation of the 1992 Constitution and the Labour Act,” he said. “Yet it is the daily reality for hundreds of Ghanaians.”
Hanson believes the exploitation is a targeted assault on the nation’s human resources.
“All these are labour abuses, and it shouldn’t happen. But we ask ourselves: why are we allowing foreigners particularly the Asians, let me be specific, the Chinese to come into our country, destroy our forests, destroy our water bodies, and now destroy our human resource? This is the destruction of labour. You pay mega salaries to your own people, but when Ghanaians fall sick, you abandon them to their fate.”
We’ve heard it before. Companies say, “We’re paying above the minimum wage, so what’s the problem?”
Hanson is having none of it. “Using the minimum wage as a yardstick is nothing but labour exploitation. How can you ask somebody to work seven days straight? Do you know what happens? Casualties. Accidents. Chronic diseases. And many of these workers operate without any PPE or protection.”
The exploitation of Ghanaian workers was bad enough. But what we uncovered about the Chinese nationals on that site is even more troubling.
Sources provided documents copies of passports, visa records. They suggest that many of the Chinese nationals working at Longshine Mining Limited were not on work visas. They were allegedly here on tourist permits. And many of those permits had expired.
Most shocking of all? As of the time of this investigation, the team discovered that the plant manager himself the man overseeing daily operations was reportedly holding an expired tourist visa.
Let that sink in. A foreign national managing an industrial mining operation illegally, right under the noses of Ghanaian regulators.
Akpene Darko Cobbinah is a private legal practitioner. We asked him to break down Ghana’s visa rules.
“In Ghana, the standard tourist visa allows a stay of 60 to 90 days,” he explained. “That visa is meant for people coming to enjoy our beautiful scenery tourism only.”
If you intend to engage in any economic activity or work, you are required to obtain a work visa specifically a B1 visa.
It’s also worth noting that ECOWAS nationals have the right to enter Ghana without a visa.
“If a tourist visa expires, the holder can apply for an extension or renewal,” Cobbinah continued. “But if they fail to do that, the immigration authorities have the right to deport them. Sometimes, instead of deportation, authorities may impose fines and then renew the visitor’s status. But make no mistake working on an expired tourist visa is a violation of Ghanaian law.”
We reached out to the company’s manager, Samuel Owusu. He had earlier responded to some allegations of misconduct. But on the issue of expired tourist visas? He declined to comment.
How were these activities allowed to continue for so long? Unchecked. Unquestioned.
A Chinese mining company operating with what appears to be illegal foreign labour, paying Ghanaian workers like slaves, deducting from their salaries when they get sick and nobody stopped them until they were ejected over a concession dispute?
The TUC is demanding answers. Labour regulators are being called to account. Immigration authorities have questions to answer.
By Ebenezer Atiemo
