U.S. Deportees: Ghana teams up with 4 other African partners

Up to 14 U.S. deportees comprising of nationals from Nigeria and The Gambia have already been received in Ghana.
President John Mahama says ECOWAS protocols allow for the free movement of people from member states without the express demand of visas.
Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and Eswatini have also reported receiving U.S. deportees under Donald Trump’s push to weed out illegal immigrants.

Ghana has accepted a plan accept U.S. deportees, joining other African countries Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan and Eswatini in receiving individuals kicked out of America under President Donald Trump’s push to weed out illegal immigrants in the nation.

According to media updates, up to 14 U.S. deportees comprising of nationals from Nigeria and The Gambia have already been received in Ghana as Donald Trump ramps up his campaign against undocumented immigrants and law violators in America.

The BBC quoted President John Mahama of Ghana saying that U.S. deportees, originally of West African countries, would henceforth be accepted in his country citing an agreement between Accra and Washington.

Mahama noted that under the region’s economic bloc, ECOWAS, protocols allow for the free movement of people from member states without the express demand of visas at border crossings.

Ghana: We were approached by the U.S. to accept deportees

Ghana’s move follows a series of deportations of illegal immigrants from the U.S. to several other African countries including South Sudan, Eswatini, and Rwanda. Uganda is also in the process of receiving U.S. deportees.

“We were approached by the U.S. to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the U.S. And we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable,” President Mahama said, adding: “All our fellow West African nationals don’t need visas to come to our country.”

Whereas Ghana said the 14 nationals it received from the U.S. were people from The Gambia and Nigeria, Washington has been asking African countries to accept deportees from Jamaica, Vietnam and Laos as part of Trumps spirited push to check immigration.

However, the Trump administration’s strategy has been met with resistance, with rights groups pointing out that the measure violates people’s basic rights. At the same time some countries such as Uganda have clarified that they will not be open to receiving people with a criminal past or unaccompanied minors in the arrangement.

Nigeria unwilling to accept deportees

Already, Africa’s most populous country Nigeria has insisted that it will not be accepting third-country prisoners deported from the U.S.

After weeks of increased push to deport Salvadorian Kilmar Garcia to Uganda, authorities in the U.S. last week announced a change of plan, noting that the man accused of being a gang member is likely to end up in Eswatini.

The Trump administration has unveiled a plan to send Kilmar Abrego, whose arrest and fight to stay in the US have become a flashpoint in its immigration crackdown, to the small African nation of Eswatini.

An official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Uganda was swapped with Eswatini as the likely destination for the former construction worker partly to save Garcia, 30, from “persecution or torture” in Uganda, a country already shouldering one of the heaviest refugee burdens in Africa.

“That claim of fear is hard to take seriously, especially given that you have claimed (through your attorneys) that you fear persecution or torture in at least 22 different countries … Nonetheless, we hereby notify you that your new country of removal is Eswatini, Africa,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security official said in an email statement.

Since his arrest months ago, U.S. officials have held that the Salvadorian is a member of the MS-13 gang, a charge that Garcia has consistently denied.

Rwanda, South Sudan accepting U.S. deportees

In late August, Rwanda announced that it received up to seven U.S. deportees as part of the country’s agreement with the Trump administration’s deal on immigration crackdown. Government spokesperson added that Rwanda expects to “vet” and receive up to 250 U.S. deportees under the arrangement.

“Three of the individuals have expressed a desire to return to their home countries, while four wish to stay and build lives in Rwanda,” Rwanda Government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said, adding: “Regardless of their specific needs, all of these individuals will receive appropriate support and protection from the Rwandan government.”

Last Saturday, a Mexican man who had been deported by the U.S. to South Sudan flew back to his native hiomeland, stating that he “felt kidnapped” when Trump immigration officials arrested and deported him to South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world.

According to the South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Amb. Apuk Ayuel Mayen, Jesus Muñoz Gutierrez left Juba in a “smooth and orderly” manner into the custody of the Mexican ambassador-designate to Juba, Alejandro Estivill.

“While I was here, they treated me well,” Muñoz told the press in Juba, adding: “I finished my time in the U.S., and they were supposed to return me to Mexico. Instead, they wrongfully sent me to South Sudan.”

U.S. deportees cross 200,000

Munoz and seven other people with a criminal history in the U.S., were initially deported to a U.S. military base in Djibouti where they were held for weeks as the Trump administration fought for weeks to secure the legal greenlight to move them to neighbouring South Sudan.

Media reports indicate that authorities in Juba are working with contacts of the home countries of the other U.S. deportees with a view to facilitate their travel back to their motherlands.

At the moment, the Trump administration holds that upto140,000 people were deported from the U.S. as of April 2025, with other projections estimating the numbers at half that amount.

On 28 August 2025, CNN reported that ICE alone has deported nearly 200,000 people in seven months since Trump returned to office under his aggressive clampdown on immigration.