Overview:
Ghana lately accepted 14 migrants deported by the U.S., none of them Ghanaian. Different African nations, together with Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan, have additionally acquired deportees, sparking criticism from rights teams over legality and detention situations.
By Chinedu Asadu | The Related Press
Ghana is the latest African country that has acquired third-country nationals deported by the U.S. or has agreed to obtain them, although the legality of the method is being questioned.
Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan have additionally taken in such deportees, and Uganda has agreed to a cope with the U.S. to take sure deported immigrants, although it hasn’t but acquired any.
Consultants have stated some international locations might settle for the deportees to earn goodwill in negotiations with the Trump administration on insurance policies reminiscent of commerce, migration and aid.
Ghanaian authorities said Monday that 14 deportees the nation acquired final week have been returned to their dwelling international locations. Legal professionals for 4 of the lads stated they had been nonetheless detained within the nation as of Monday night, and the completely different accounts couldn’t instantly be reconciled.
Deportees had been despatched to Ghana at quick discover
The immigrants the U.S. authorities deported to Ghana included 13 Nigerians and one Gambian. None of them had been initially from Ghana.
It was not instantly clear once they arrived in Ghana. Courtroom paperwork present they had been awoken in the course of the night time on Sept. 5 and never advised the place they had been going till hours into the flight on a U.S. army cargo aircraft.
A number of the deportees had no ties with the nation, nor did they designate it as a possible nation of removing, in keeping with the lawsuit they filed in U.S. through their lawyers.
Ghana says it may solely obtain fellow West Africans
Ghana’s International Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa stated his nation accepted the deportees “purely on humanitarian precept” and since they had been fellow West Africans.
“We simply couldn’t proceed to take the struggling of our fellow West Africans,” Ablakwa stated.
“So we thought that since there was a vacuum in West Africa, we must always step in as a part of our Pan-African credentials to care for West Africans,” he stated, suggesting that Ghana agreed to the request as a result of some other West African nations had rejected the request to obtain third-country deportees.
The present standing of the deportees
Ghana’s Minister for Authorities Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu advised the AP on Monday that the 14 migrants “have since left for his or her dwelling international locations,” with out offering additional particulars.
As of final week, the association was for a bus to move the Nigerians again dwelling, a journey that sometimes takes seven to eight hours, Ghanaian President John Mahama, advised reporters on the time.
Nigerian officers stated they weren’t briefed by both Ghana or U.S. concerning the deportations, and expressed shock that the Nigerians had been despatched to different international locations when some residents have been deported instantly from U.S. to Nigeria.
“What we now have solely rejected is deportation of different nationals into Nigeria,” Kimebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesperson for Nigeria’s Ministry of International Affairs, advised AP.
Latin American international locations have additionally taken deported immigrants
Most of the international locations which have agreed to such deportation offers are in Latin America and Africa.
The U.S. has despatched a whole lot of Venezuelans to a notorious jail in El Salvador. Venezuelans and immigrants from Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, China and different international locations have additionally been despatched to Costa Rica and Panama.
Final month, Paraguay signed a third-country settlement with the Trump administration. Mexico has not signed such an settlement, however has accepted deportees from Central America and different Western Hemisphere international locations, together with Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.
Human rights issues
The Trump administration’s deportation program has confronted widespread criticism from human rights consultants who cite worldwide protections for asylum-seekers and query whether or not immigrants will probably be appropriately screened earlier than being deported.
A lawyer representing the Gambian despatched to Ghana advised the AP the deportee and several other others had an order prohibiting their return for worry of torture of their international locations.
Rights teams have additionally argued that a lot of the African international locations which have acquired such deportees have one factor in widespread: A poor human rights document, with authorities critics typically focused.
The immigrants deported to Ghana had been detained there in “abysmal and deplorable” situations after being held in “straitjackets” for 16 hours on the flight, in keeping with the U.S. lawsuit filed by legal professionals for a few of them.
Ghanaian authorities denied the declare about detention situations and stated they’d no information of the scenario of the deportees as they flew to Ghana.
Sending the deportees to their international locations regardless of the authorized orders prohibiting such over worry of their security is “a transparent violation of the duties each international locations have” to guard the migrants amid such dangers, stated Maureen A. Sweeney, immigration lawyer and professor of regulation on the College of Maryland Carey Faculty of Legislation.
“That is a part of a sample by the U.S. authorities of utmost indifference (not less than) to the federal government’s obligations and to the human penalties of its mass deportation marketing campaign,” Sweeney stated.