Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 members of the community near the site of the mine collapse, including 8 children who worked in or near the mine and 5 witnesses to the collapse, as well as government authorities in Upper Denkyira East district and the capital, Accra.
Children from nearby villages worked regularly at the accident site. Children as young as 12 carried and processed the ore and sold the raw gold they mined directly to local traders.
A third of Ghana’s children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working. A 2006 International Labor Organization (ILO) study found that about 10,000 children were working in the country’s artisanal gold mines. Children who work in artisanal gold mining risk ill-health or accidents from deep falls into pits, collapsing pits, flying rocks or shard, dangerous tools and machinery, continued exposure to dust, transport of heavy loads, and the use of toxic mercury.
Twelve-year-old “Ibrahim” described to Human Rights Watch how he carried heavy ore and processed it with mercury. Asked whether he liked this work, Ibrahim said, “I don’t like mining anymore because of the way people are dying.”
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