(AFP) – Another group of West Africans has been sent to Ghana by the United States, including at least one individual with deportation protections, a lawyer involved with the case told AFP on Saturday. US President Donald Trump has pursued a vast immigration crackdown, including the deportation of people who typically would have been allowed to stay in the United States under previous administrations. He has also pursued “third country” agreements that allow the United States to send individuals to countries where they have no ties.
Since last year, Ghana has been taking West Africans temporarily before sending them to their home countries, including individuals whom US immigration judges found would face persecution in their origin nations. Ghana has previously dumped deportees in neighboring Togo, often without documents. The exact number in the latest batch of deportees is unknown, but Meredyth Yoon, a US-based lawyer associated with one of the deportation cases, stated that they arrived on Thursday. Ghanaian immigration services did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The individual whose case Yoon is associated with, a Guinean man, had deportation protections, according to the lawyer. This man had “withholding of removal,” a legal protection that is weaker than asylum but in the past has superseded someone’s deportation order, allowing them to live and work in the United States.
Fears are growing that they could be sent back to their countries soon. Yoon expressed concerns that “they could all be deported back to their countries as soon as tomorrow.” The most recent flight comes after at least 42 people arrived in Ghana last year, according to a previous tally by a Ghanaian rights group. Washington and Accra have not made the actual number public. Previous deportees were held in secret at a military base outside Accra by armed guards, with some being dumped in Togo, where they currently live without documents.
Trump won the 2024 US presidential election on promises of launching “the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.” In addition to pushing third-country deportations, he has slashed his country’s asylum and refugee programs.
© 2024 AFP
