By Mevlut Ozkan
ISTANBUL (AA) - Ghana expects to receive 40 more West African nationals deported from the US, after taking in 14 earlier, the country’s foreign minister said in a live broadcast.
“It's not only other West Africans, but there are 166 Ghanaians we are expecting this year,” Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told local Channel One TV late Wednesday.
Ablakwa said the West African country was not doing the US or President Trump a favor, but its “fellow Africans.”
“We solidarize with them. When we see those images, the arrests, the violation of their rights, being detained against their will, and it's as though nobody wants to take them,” he said.
Ablakwa said Ghana was doing this to maintain its position as “the Mecca for Africans, for freedom fighters,” and will continue to support “fellow Africans in distress.”
“So let's be clear, we didn't agree to this because we agree with President Trump's immigration policies,” he underlined.
The foreign minister stressed that only West African nationals would be accepted, and all deportees would be vetted before entry into Ghana, with convicted criminals excluded from admission.
Last week, President John Dramani Mahama announced that Ghana had agreed to accept third-country nationals deported from the US and received 14 so far, mostly Nigerians and one Gambian.
Ghana has become the fifth African country to accept third-country nationals deported from the US, following Uganda, Rwanda, Eswatini, and South Sudan.