Ghana arrests gold miners from Niger, Nigeria and Togo 10 June 2013 Last updated at 13:52 Ghana's police have arrested at least 55 West Africans suspected of illegal gold mining, an immigration spokesman has told the BBC. The arrests suggest that the police's focus has shifted away from Chinese miners to African miners, reports the BBC Akwasi Sarpong from Ghana. The authorities freed 124 Chinese nationals at the weekend and ordered them to leave the country. Ghanaian law prevents foreigners from working in small-scale gold mines. Ghana is Africa's biggest gold producer after South Africa. Chinese intervention The raids are popular with many poor Ghanaians who feel that foreigners are taking jobs from them, our reporter says. Immigration spokesman Francis Palmdeti told the BBC that of the 55 arrested, 51 were from Niger, three from Togo and one from Nigeria. Identity checks were being done on three other detainees after they claimed they were Ghanaians, not Malians, as suspected, he said. The raid shows that officials are bent on stopping any non-Ghanaian from getting involved in artisanal mining, our correspondent says. The suspects are being screened at an immigration detention centre in the capital, Accra. The authorities plan to deport them, in contrast to the release of the Chinese workers following the intervention of the Chinese embassy in Ghana, our reporter says. Chinese embassy officials say another 42 of their nationals, arrested earlier this month in raids in four mineral-rich regions, would be released on Monday. The released Chinese workers have been ordered to catch flights back to China immediately, our correspondent says. Some of the foreigners work for local companies such as Honsol Mining, which insists that all its workers have valid permits. The company alleges that during a swoop by the security forces on its premises in March, gold was stolen and equipment was damaged, our reporter says. In October last year, a Chinese boy was killed during a security crackdown on illegal mining. About 100 Chinese nationals were also detained over illegal mining the same month.