Aisha Huang scandal: What Ghana’s laws say about deportations

Her prosecution in Ghana’s court for mining without a license, and engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals without a valid license, is not the first time Aisha Huang has flooded news headlines.

The Chinese galamsey kingpin was first arrested in May 2017 but in 2018, during her prosecution, the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government controversially

Read full articledecided to no longer pursue the case, leading to her supposed deportation which is now turning out to be repatriation.

She had been charged with three counts of undertaking small-scale mining operations, contrary to Section 99 (1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703); providing mining support services without valid registration with the Minerals Commission contrary to the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), and the illegal employment of foreign nationals, contrary to the Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573).

In recent comments passed by President Akufo-Addo, he contradicted earlier details that indicated that the ‘notorious’ galamsey kingpin was deported in 2018.

Speaking in an interview on Stone City Radio in Ho during his tour of the Volta Region, which GhanaWeb monitored, Akufo-Addo said he was unsure if in fact the 'galamsey' queen was deported or she fled the country in 2018.

"… I am not still sure whether she was, in fact, deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it.

"Whichever way it is, she has become a sort of nickname for all that the 'galamsey' represent and also, unfortunately, for the involvement of Chinese nationals in this illicit trade," he said.

While the truth or otherwise of this persists, many questions have also arisen on what could have actually prompted a deportation situation.

GhanaWeb shares with its readers, details as contained in the Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573), on the circumstances under which deportation can happen, based on the recent case of Aisha Huang, the galamsey ‘kingpin’ standing trial in Ghana’s courts.

“Section 35—Person Liable to Deportation. (1) A foreign national is liable to deportation if— (a) a court recommendation for his deportation is effective under subsection (2) of this section; (b) he has been found by a court to be destitute or without means of support or to be of unsound mind or mentally handicapped; (c) he is a prohibited immigrant; (d) he is in Ghana without a valid permit, or any of the conditions on which his permit was granted has been broken; or (e) his presence in Ghana is in the opinion of the Minister not conducive to the public good,” Part III of the document stated partly.

The question remains if indeed Ghana went through all the processes of deportation in the case of Aisha Huang or not.

See the full document below, and more specifically on deportation, go to page 13:



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