The police of South Africa made a statement on Friday that 1,000 illegal miners have been arrested in an operation that lasted several days.
They said most of the suspects are foreigners without proper documents to support their presence in the country. It said their nationalities have not yet been fully discovered.
They were apprehended at a mine located Barbeton in the Mpumalanga province, the statement enclosed In the past months, South Africa has made stronger emphasis on operations against illegal mining and mines in the country.
In January, over 2000 illegal miners were arrested at an existing mine in Stilfontein. Of these illegal miners, 1,128 were from Mozambique, 473 from Zimbabwe, and 197 from Lesotho.
In the same operation, at least 78 persons died after authorities disrupted supplies from getting to the underground mine.
The authorities of South Africa are being accused by activists and rights groups of using a starvation method to push the miners out of the pits where they had shielded themselves.
In August 2024, police had blocked food and water from being taken down the mine in an attempt to force people to come out, so they could be arrested.
The South African government defended the police action on the mine as a necessary step to combat crime and illegal mining activities
