Supreme Court nominee, Justice Philip Bright Mensah, has recommended language training for judges stationed in areas affected by illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, to enhance the prosecution of foreign offenders, particularly Chinese nationals.
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Justice Mensah underscored the challenges law enforcement and the judiciary face when dealing with foreign nationals involved in illegal mining activities, primarily due to language barriers.
He argued that although Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Act provides strong punitive measures against illegal mining, the real challenge lies in the effective implementation of these laws — especially in cases involving foreigners who do not speak English.
“First and foremost, we have this minerals and mining laws, and the offenses that the law creates are deterrent enough to punish people who are involved in galamsey. What is left is the effective implementation of the law. So, I think there should be a collaboration between the service and the police, or the enforcing authorities. After all, we are fighting a common cause.”
Justice Mensah emphasized that many illegal mining suspects, particularly Chinese nationals, often escape prosecution due to the lack of qualified interpreters and the inability of law enforcement officers to communicate with them.
To address the problem, he proposed two solutions: either train judges working in galamsey-affected areas in the Chinese language — potentially by sending them to China — or equip the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) with the resources to recruit and train competent Chinese interpreters.
He acknowledged that relying solely on interpreters has its own challenges.
“One area I also want to maybe hammer or suggest is that there are foreigners who are also engaging in this galamsey activities, destroying our forests and the rest of it. You know, when they are arrested, especially these Chinese people, when they are arrested and sent to the court, the difficulty is that they don’t speak English. Even if they can understand English. And because the Chinese or the police enforcement agencies also are unable to speak their language, it becomes more and more difficult to get them prosecuted.”
“So I would suggest strongly that the judges who are in the areas where these galamseys are going on, the judges must either be taken to China for further studies in Chinese language or they should bring experts to train our judges.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Hamdia Mohammed
