Illegal prospectors rescued from mine after months: they immediately got arrested
After months of stalemate, South African emergency services have already saved 34 illegal miners from a stalled gold mine this week. Dozens of bodies were also recovered. The miners brought to the surface alive were emaciated and in poor health. Yet they were immediately arrested. At least a hundred miners are said to have died.
Already at least a hundred illegal miners are said to have died in the illegal mine in Stilfontein, about 150 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. They had been holed up there since October for fear of being arrested.
At first the family was still allowed to bring the workers food and drink, but later South African authorities closed the mine to force the illegal miners to surface. Once on the surface, they would then be arrested. The South African government wants to crack down on illegal mining. But this approach has drawn a lot of criticism, including human rights groups who demonstrated. Some 1,500 people already came out voluntarily in recent months and weeks.
Quite a few miners, believed to be more than a hundred, are said to have died in the meantime. Meanwhile, aid workers brought the remaining miners back to the surface, where they were immediately handcuffed.
(SR for Tagtik/Source: Reuters/Illustration: Photo by Alpha Perspective on Unsplash)