Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has defended the government’s decision to “temporarily” host a group of West African nationals deported from the United States, stressing that the move was guided by humanitarian and Pan-African principles rather than material gain.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series in Accra, Ablakwa said the first batch of 14 deportees had arrived in Ghana, including nationals from Nigeria and The Gambia. Those individuals, he explained, were immediately assisted to return to their respective countries.
“The government of Ghana took the principled and humanitarian decision to accept the limited number of West African nationals deported from the United States under exceptional circumstances in line with Ghana’s longstanding Pan-African ideals,” Ablakwa said. “Our action was guided solely by our moral responsibility, our legal obligations under the 1992 Constitution and ECOWAS protocols, and our distinguished Pan-African track record.”
He stressed that Ghana did not receive and would not seek financial or material compensation from Washington, calling the arrangement “not transactional.” Instead, he framed the decision as a continuation of Ghana’s tradition of providing refuge and solidarity to Africans in distress.
The minister noted that the deportees had faced prolonged detention in the U.S., where they risked being removed to unsafe countries without guarantees of human rights protections. “As a nation that upholds the dignity and rights of all people, particularly those of African descent, Ghana’s action was to prevent further human suffering,” he said.
Ablakwa confirmed that under the understanding with Washington, Ghana independently vets every individual proposed for deportation to ensure they pose no security threat. “We have put in place strict safeguards to ensure that convicted hardened criminals cannot be brought into our country,” he said.
The policy, which has drawn public scrutiny, was first disclosed by President John Dramani Mahama in a media engagement earlier this month. The president explained that Ghana agreed to cooperate only on the condition that the deportees were nationals of West African countries.
Ablakwa further stressed that the arrangement remains a limited understanding and has not been elevated into a formal bilateral agreement. Should that change, he said, the government would comply with constitutional requirements by seeking parliamentary approval.
“This should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of the immigration policies of the Trump administration,” Ablakwa said. “Ghana’s decision must be understood as an act of Pan-African empathy.”
