Ghana accepting west Africans deported from US
ACCRA: Ghana is accepting west Africans deported from the United States, Ghanaian President John Mahama said Wednesday.
Deporting people to third countries — in many cases places they’ve never lived — has been a hallmark of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, notably by sending hundreds to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Mahama told reporters Wednesday that Ghana had agreed to take in nationals from west Africa, where a regional agreement allows visa-free travel.
“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.
He said a “first batch” of 14 people had come to Ghana, including “several” Nigerians who have since returned to their home countries though he did not provide a timeline for when that occurred. Another arrived from The Gambia.
Ghana has long been home to Nigerian immigrants, though recent weeks have seen sporadic anti-Nigerian protests in several cities where groups of demonstrators demanded their expulsion, blaming them for rising crime, prostitution and unfair economic competition.
In late July, Nigeria sent a special envoy and its foreign ministry urged calm while Ghanaian and Nigerian officials held talks to defuse tensions.
