Child Rights International is calling for the arrest and prosecution of parents who engage their children in illegal mining.

According to the organisation, its latest findings on child exploitation in mining communities point to an alarming increase in the engagement of children as labourers on mining concession sites with at least four in every five homes within the designated areas of the research having a child or two working on ‘galamsey’ sites.

“By policy design we need to also take their concerns into consideration and see how we can support them, especially when it comes to children who work in the mining sector. How do we help them look at life from the other side of it,” said Bright Appiah, the Executive Director of Child’s Rights International Thursday.

The organisation, he said expects government to roll out a social protection programme aimed at coming to the aid of the children.

“Government must take steps to deal with these people…if it is about prosecution, government must do that because it involves child trafficking and all that,” he added.