Ghana has begun accepting West Africans deported from the US with a first batch of 14 deportees, made up of Nigerians, a Gambian, and others arriving in Accra on Wednesday.
The Ghanaian authorities are expected to facilitate their return to their respective countries stating West Africans “don’t need a visa anyway” to come to Ghana.
“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 because all our fellow West Africans don’t need a visa to come to our country,” he said.
The arrangement comes amid Washington’s intensified deportation drive under President Donald Trump, who has pushed for removals to “third countries” as part of his hardline immigration policy.
Trump has previously overseen deportations of migrants to Eswatini, South Sudan and Rwanda while Nigeria resisted the overtures to take up deportees. Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said in July that the Federal Government would not accept deportees from outside Nigeria, citing national security and economic concerns.
Trump hosted five West African leaders including the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal at the White House on July 9 to persuade them to receive deportees from other countries.
