Child Rights International (CRI) is calling on authorities to strictly enforce child protection laws to protect children in mining areas from hazardous chemicals which is injurious to their health.The CRI, an NGO, said a research carried out in the country revealed the reality behind Ghana's illegal mining boom popularly known as 'Galamsey'.According to CRI, national and district authorities must bolster existing child protection laws by providing law enforcement agencies (Police, Ghana Minerals Commission, and community vigilante teams) with the necessary equipment, training, and logistical support to enforce the law.The Executive Director, CRI, Mr Bright Appiah, made the call in Accra yesterday when he briefed the press about CRI's research findings.According to him, these agencies should conduct regular inspections of mining sites, swiftly remove any children found working, and prosecute those who employ under-aged labour under the Children's Act and the Labour Act.Mr Appiah said there was the need for new regulatory framework to prioritise child protection, penalise offenders, and monitor mining activities to ensure children's rights are safeguarded.He also demanded for the immediate abolition of the Community Mining Policy.The policy, he said had created loopholes that allowed minors to be recruited into illegal mining activities, severely undermining their right to health, education, and a childhood free from hazardous labour."It is a child rights catastrophe, every day we delay, another child is lost to death, to disease, or to despair.
Ghana must act now, or history will never forgive us," he stated.He suggested a national health fund should be established for affected children, and a swift transition to mercury-free mining.Mr Appiah said thousands of children in the country were being forced into illegal gold mines, risking their lives and health for a few grams of gold.He said children as young as five were trapped in toxic pits, inhaling dangerous mercury fumes, suffering broken bones, and losing their futures, while the systems meant to protect them fail."Our gold is soaked in the blood, sweat, and lost futures of our children," Mr Appiah said. "Ghana cannot mine its way to prosperity by burying its youngest citizens in pits of greed."He said only 17 per cent of children aged 15 to 17 in Ghana's mining areas remained in school.Additionally, 81 per cent of these children suffer brutal injuries, and 93 per cent are exposed to poisonous mercury every day.
Girls face even greater risks, with 45 per cent reporting sexual exploitation and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases."Instead of learning in classrooms, they are breathing in toxic fumes, breaking bones underground, and being forced to sacrifice their futures for survival," he said.He said some as young as 10 years earned up to GH¢4,200 a month, more than four times the average household income-by risking their lives in dangerous, illegal gold mines.Mr Appiah warned that Ghana was facing a child rights emergency. "We are burying Ghana's future alive under poisoned rivers and toxic soil.
This is not just an environmental disaster.
