Ghana has agreed to accept West African nationals deported from the United States, with the first batch of 14 people already repatriated, President John Dramani Mahama confirmed on Wednesday.
The deportees, mostly Nigerians and one Gambian, were processed in Ghana before being returned to their home countries. Mahama said the arrangement followed a request from Washington under President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, which seeks to remove millions of undocumented migrants.
Defending the decision, the Ghanaian leader noted that West Africans do not require visas to enter Ghana under regional protocols. “We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed, and we agreed that West African nationals were acceptable,” he explained.
Mahama did not specify whether there would be a cap on the number of deportees Ghana might receive. The US has entered similar arrangements with other African countries, recently deporting individuals to Eswatini, South Sudan, and Rwanda — the latter having agreed to take in up to 250 migrants.
The development underscores mounting US pressure on African governments to support its deportation efforts, a policy that rights groups have warned could endanger the welfare of affected migrants.
