Ghana Receives First Batch of West African Deportees from U.S., Including Nigerians, Under Third‑Country Removal Deal
Ghana has agreed to accept West African nationals deported from the United States, with the first group of 14 already repatriated, President John Dramani Mahama confirmed late Wednesday.
The deportees, comprising mostly Nigerians and one Gambian, were processed through Ghana before being facilitated back to their home countries, Mahama told reporters at a press briefing.
The arrangement follows a request from Washington as part of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration agenda, which aims to remove millions of people living in the US illegally. The Trump administration has increasingly sought third-country agreements with African nations to speed up deportations.
Mahama defended the deal, saying West African citizens did not need visas to enter Ghana under existing regional protocols. “We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the US, and we agreed 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 Ghanaian leader did not disclose whether there was a limit to the number of deportees the country might take in.
The US has made similar arrangements elsewhere on the continent. In recent months, it deported five individuals to Eswatini, eight to South Sudan, and seven to Rwanda under separate agreements. Rwanda in particular has agreed to accept up to 250 migrants deported from the United States.
In July, Trump hosted five West African presidents at the White House, where sources said the issue of resettling deportees featured prominently. Mahama, however, was not among the leaders present at that meeting.
The development highlights growing US pressure on African governments to cooperate with its deportation drive—an approach that has raised concerns among migrant rights groups about the safety and welfare of those being removed.
Nigeria has resisted similar requests from Washington to accept deportees from outside the region.
“The U.S. is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans, some straight out of prisons,” Nigeria’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said in July. “It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners.”
He suggested that American tariff threats were linked to the deportation issue.
The Trump administration has pushed the boundaries of U.S. deportation policy elsewhere, including sending people to Panama and El Salvador under rarely used 18th-century legal provisions. Critics say such measures strip migrants of their right to due process, while the administration argues they are necessary to deter unlawful immigration.
