Ghana agreed to receive deportees from the US, joining a growing list of African nations accepting undocumented immigrants who are being expelled by American President Donald Trump’s administration.
A first batch of 14 people, who aren’t Ghanaian, have been sent to the country, Ghanaian President John Mahama told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday. They include Nigerians and a Gambian national, he said, after the country agreed to only people from the West African region.
“We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the US and we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable,” Mahama said.
The agreement signals an effort to improve Ghana’s relations with the US — its sixth-biggest trading partner — after the Trump administration imposed a 15% tariff on its goods and included Ghana on a list of 36 countries potentially facing a visa ban.
Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan are among other African nations that have agreed to accept third-party nationals deported from the US. Uganda has also reached a similar deal, al-Jazeera reported last month.
Separately, South Sudan said it was seeking to transfer six of the eight deportees it had received from the US to their countries of origin, saying most had already served full terms for crimes committed.
South Sudan agreed in July to take the individuals, who had been convicted of serious crimes, including murder, robbery and sexual assault, from countries including Cuba, Myanmar and South Korea. Last week it said it had facilitated the transfer of Jesus Munõz Gutierrez to Mexico after guarantees from his government that he would not be subjected to torture or any degrading treatment.
“The six remaining in South Sudan are in the custody of the government,” foreign affairs spokeswoman Apuk Ayuel Mayen told reporters in Juba on Thursday. “Ideally, they were supposed to be released to their countries of origin.” Juba will “pursue other options” should the respective governments decline to receive the deportees, Mayen said.
Trump has cracked down on undocumented migrants since returning to the White House in January and his administration has negotiated agreements to send them to countries other than their own.
The US government argues the people it’s deporting include dangerous criminals, but civil rights groups say the practice will have a greater impact on law-abiding noncitizens who are at risk of being sent to unfamiliar places with little, if any, recourse.
- Bloomberg
