A total of 1,641 Chinese nationals involved in illegal mining in Ghana were arrested and repatriated between 2009 and August 2022.
This is according to data compiled by the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), which shows that 1,018 were repatriated between 2009 and 2016.
It is made up of nine in 2009, 43 in 2010, none in 2011, 130 in 2012, 713 in 2013 and 74 in 2014.
In 2015, 21 were repatriated and 28 were repatriated in 2016 to bring the total number in that period to 1,018.
In 2017, 36 were repatriated followed by 160 in 2018, 376 in 2019, 28 in 2020, 11 in 2021 and 22 by August 2022 to bring the total in this period to 623.
In all, a total of 3,800 are said to be voluntary repatriations in the period between 2009 and 2013.; 2017-36; 2018-160; 2019-376; 2020-28; 2021-11 and 2022-12.