Supreme Court nominee,Justice Philip Bright Mensah has called for the introduction of Chinese language training for judges operating in illegal mining areas, citing persistent challenges in prosecuting foreign nationals—particularly Chinese citizens—linked to the country’s rampant “galamsey” problem.

Justice Philip Bright Mensah, speaking during a vetting session before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Tuesday, said language barriers are undermining courtroom proceedings and hampering efforts to hold illegal miners accountable.

“When they are arrested—especially the Chinese—and brought to court, the difficulty is that they don’t speak English. Even if they understand it, they refuse to speak it,” Justice Mensah told lawmakers. “Law enforcement and prosecutors, for the most part, also don’t speak Chinese, so it becomes nearly impossible to proceed effectively.”

The nominee pointed to interpreters as another weak link in the process, describing translation inconsistencies and gaps in courtroom communication as further obstacles to justice. “The interpreters themselves can be problematic,” he said. “If the judge could understand the language directly, it would strengthen the entire prosecutorial process.”

To bridge the communication divide, Justice Mensah proposed a two-pronged approach: either dispatch judges to China for formal language instruction or invest in local capacity by equipping Ghana’s Judicial Training Institute to offer Chinese language courses with help from visiting experts.

“The reality is, if a person has committed an offense and you cannot prosecute due to language limitations, it is essentially equivalent to letting the person walk free,” Mensah argued.

The call comes amid rising national concern over the environmental toll and governance challenges posed by galamsey—an informal term for illegal small-scale gold mining in Ghana. Chinese nationals have been frequently implicated in such operations, often in collaboration with local actors.

Source:TheDotNews