September 11, (THEWILL) — Ghana has agreed to accept West Africans deported from the United States, joining Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan, as African countries to receive deported migrants.
Speaking on Wednesday night at a news conference, Ghanaian President, John Mahama, said Ghana 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. We agreed that West African nationals were acceptable because all our fellow West African nationals don’t need a visa to come to our country”, Mahama said.
The “first batch” of 14 people, which includes several Nigerians and one Gambian, has already arrived in Ghana, he told journalists.
The deportation of undocumented immigrants to third countries, including places deportees have never lived, has been a key tactic of US President, Donald Trump. His administration has tried to strike a deal with multiple African countries about taking in deportees as part of its campaign to curb immigration through high-profile raids and deportations.
In the last couple of months, several undocumented immigrants were accepted by Rwanda, Eswatini and South Sudan.
Notably, the deportation agreement between the US and Ghana has come amid hiked tariffs on Ghanaian goods and visa restrictions for Ghanaian nationals.
Mahama said the relations between Accra and Washington are “tightening”, though he added relations had remained positive.
THEWILL reports that Nigeria has pushed back against accepting third-party deportees.
“The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons. It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners”, Nigerian Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said in July, when he featured on Channels Television, hinting that recent tariff threats were related to the issue of deportations.
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