The Convener of the Media Coalition against Galamsey, Kenneth Ashigbey, has said the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey has not yet been won.
Ashigbey stated that despite the measures adopted to permanently tackle galamsey, the Chinese nationals are still trooping into the country to engage in the activity.
According to him, the Chinese are the “conveyor belts of galamsey”.
Ashigbey said the Forestry Commission has also failed as far as tackling galamsey was concerned.
He stated that most illegal mining activities were freely conducted around forest reserves which were under their watch.
“The fight against illegal mining is a war that has not been completed. I came from Adisababa today and on the flight from Adisababa there were a lot of Chinese on the flight and you look at Ghana and you wonder whether these Chinese are coming as business people or tourists", he noted.
The convenor wondered what the Chinese were coming to do in Ghana.
“Because Ghana is asking them to get visas before they come what they are doing is they are coming to our neighbouring countries and they are being smuggled in, so definitely the conveyer belt has not stopped. The interesting thing is these Chinese are arrested operating within the forest reserve."