The government of Ghana has officially announced that it has received its first deportation from the United States which included Nigerian deportees.
Ghanaian President, John Mahama made this known on Wednesday, September 10, 2025.
Mahama explained that the first group of deportation from the U.S. included 14 individuals; Nigerian deportees and one Gambian.
The Ghanaian President, speaking at a press conference at the Jubilee House, added that his government sanctioned the deportation pact with the U.S. as part of the country’s commitment to regional protocols under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which allows visa-free travel for West African nationals.
He added that the Nigerian deportees and others are being facilitated to return to their home countries.
“We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the US, and we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable because all our fellow West Africans don’t need a visa to come to our country,” he said.
He justified the decision by saying West Africans “don’t need a visa anyway” to come to Ghana.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that the development came after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump intensified the deportation drive. Trump had begun the implementation of a third-country deportation. The policy would see individuals deported from the U.S go to another country apart from their home country.
The third-country deportation policy was formally revived after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on June 23, 2025, cleared the legal path for sending deportees to countries other than their own.
Since then, the administration of President Trump has expanded this policy to Africa, with recent deportations of individuals from countries such as Vietnam, Jamaica, and Yemen to South Sudan and Eswatini.
South Sudan was the first African country to accept deportees under Trump’s revived “third-country deportation” policy.
In July, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court approved the deportation of eight men, reportedly convicted of violent crimes and lacking US legal status, to South Sudan.
Eswatini, a Southern African country, followed shortly after, receiving five individuals from countries like Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos.
Rwanda is the third country to strike a deal, agreeing to accept up to 250 deportees from the US while retaining discretion over whom to accept.
Rwandan government spokesperson, Yolande Makolo, confirmed the deal to CNN, disclosing that the East African nation had “agreed with the United States to accept up to 250 migrants,” in a deal that allows the government “to approve each proposed for resettlement.”
However, Nigeria is among some African countries that have rejected deportations of other nationals from the U.S.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, made this known during a press conference in July 2025.
Tuggar said that the Federal Government would not accept deportees from outside Nigeria, citing national security and economic concerns.
The Minister also claimed that the Trump administration was mounting pressure on African countries to accept deportees convicted of crimes into African countries under his “third-country deportation” policy.
He said: “The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons.
“It will be difficult for countries like Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own, we cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria for crying out loud. We already have 230 million people.
“Even if other African countries are accepting deportees from the US, Nigeria will not accept them.
“We are a sovereign country and we take decisions only after fully analysing the implications for our national security.
“We have our own issues we are struggling with. We will not allow ourselves to be pressured into accepting deportees, regardless of what other nations are doing.
“Our national interest, as it stands now, is not favourably disposed to accepting deportees from the American government.”
