Ghana receives 14 West African nationals deported from the US

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A group of 14 West Africans deported from the U.S. arrived in Ghana, the country’s president said. The country joins Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African countries that have received migrants from third countries who were deported from the U.S., a controversial approach whose legality lawyers for the deportees have questioned.

“We agreed with (Washington) that West African nationals were acceptable because all our fellow West African nationals don’t need a visa to come to our country,” President John Mahama told reporters late Wednesday.

The deportees had arrived in the country and included Nigerian and Gambian nationals who planned to return to their countries, he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump in his second term, has been aggressively cracking down on immigrants he says are criminals and from countries whose nationals have overstayed their visas in the U.S.

However, there have been concerns about the conditions facing some deportees sent to Africa. Lawyers and activists have also questioned the legality of the deportations and argued that Trump’s administration appears to be making such requests to the nations most affected by his policies on trade, migration and aid.

The five men deported to Eswatini in July have been held in a maximum-security prison for seven weeks without charge or explanation and with no access to legal counsel, their lawyers said last week.

Rights groups have also argued that most of the African countries that have received such deportees have one thing in common: A poor human rights record with government critics often targeted.

In July, Trump hosted five West African presidents — from Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Gabon — at the White House to discuss whether the countries would be open to accepting deportees from the U.S.

Nigeria, whose nationals comprise the bulk of deported migrants to Ghana, said at the time that African countries were under “significant pressure” to receive migrants and that it would not agree.

Ghana is the first West African country to announce it has entered into such an agreement with the U.S. to receive deported foreign nationals.

Mahama did not say whether the 14 deportees had a criminal history.

“West Africa has a protocol of free movement. Any West African is welcome in Ghana,” Mahama said.

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A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Uganda has received third-country deportees from the U.S.

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Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria.