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. It is a national crisis,” he expressed concern.

He cited Amansie West and South in the Ashanti Region as areas where about 85 per cent of child miners were suffering from pneumoconiosis, a deadly lung disease caused by inhaling mining dust.

“In Sefwi Wiawso in the Western North Region, another 85 per cent of child miners are battling tuberculosis. Mercury used in mining is permanent­ly damaging the brains and nervous systems of children, with many left disabled for life,” he added.

According to him, health facilities in these com­munities were over­whelmed and ill-equipped to treat the growing number of sick children, “Many facilities lack trained medical staff or even basic medicines needed to manage mining-re­lated diseases”.

Mr Ap­piah said about 70 per cent of house­holds had no access to clean drinking water, adding that families either relied on polluted rivers contaminated by mining waste or pay huge amounts up to GH¢448.50 a month for sachet water just to survive.

“Instead of being protected, many children are now the breadwinners for their families. They provide for siblings, parents, and even grand­parents, trapped in a brutal cycle of child labour, disease, and poverty,” he expressed worry.