Don't hate the Chinese - Mahama

President John Mahama has urged Ghanaians to shun any xenophobic sentiments harboured against illegal Chinese miners in Ghana.

According to President Mahama, the laws of Ghana should be allowed to function as far as dealing with the illegal miners is concerned.


Hundreds of Chinese are in Ghana doing illegal mining. They have, in several instances, clashed violently with their local hosts.


Some of those conflicts have been bloody in the past resulting in deaths and injuries on either side.


The Ghana Immigration Service recently deported some Chinese and also prevented more of them from entering the country as a result of some of these illegal mining activities.

At a meeting with a delegation from China at the Flagstaff House in Accra on Wednesday, President Mahama said inasmuch as Ghana frowns on the illegal activities of the Chinese, the laws must be left to work.


He added that xenophobia against the Chinese is not the way to go.


“We should not stereotype and target or prejudice, the thing our laws need to be obeyed,” he added.


“It doesn’t matter who it is, whether it is an Eskimo, Nigerian or a Chinese, it is not about who it is; it is about what the law says and how we implement it,” President Mahama said.