FG, NiDCOM DENY ABANDONING NIGERIANS DEPORTED FROM US TO GHANA
Read Time:4 Minute, 45 Second
By: Sefiu Ajape
The Federal Government has denied reports that Nigerians deported from the United States were left stranded after allegedly being “dumped in Togo” by Ghanaian authorities, stating that the returnees are currently undergoing proper profiling procedures.
Responding through the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), the government clarified that the deportees were “not stranded” but were being processed in line with international protocols.
NiDCOM’s Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, confirmed this in an interview on Saturday.
“We are aware that some Nigerians were deported, but they are not stranded; they are being profiled because their own deportation is special, unlike others,” Balogun said.
“Nigeria did not abandon them (deportees); there was a deal that Ghana agreed with the US to accept that responsibility to receive deportees from the US who are from the West African sub-region.
“After they got to Ghana, Ghana took their own, dispatched others through Togo, so I think they are going through profiling, not that they are stranded; they are still undergoing the process of profiling.”
A Nigerian deportee, however, told the BBC that the Ghanaian authorities secretly moved him and other West Africans across the border and “dumped” them in Togo.
“They did not take us through the main border; they took us through the back door. They paid the police there and dropped us in Togo,” he alleged, adding that he and others were left without any formal handover to Togolese officials.
The man, who said he had been stranded in Togo with no documents, explained, “We are struggling to survive in Togo without any documentation. None of us has family in Togo. We’re just stuck in a hotel. Right now, we’re just trying to survive until our lawyers can help us with this situation.”
He also described the conditions at the Ghanaian military camp where they were previously kept as “deplorable,” noting, “Life there was really hard, so we asked for a better place, better medication, better healthcare and better water.”
According to reports, the 14 deportees — including three Nigerians and a Liberian — were the first batch of migrants sent out of the US under former President Donald Trump’s “third-country deportation” policy, which permits the US to send deportees to countries other than their own, particularly when their home countries refuse to receive them.
Ghana became the first West African country to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the US to accept such deportees as part of the policy.
Speaking on ChannelOne TV, Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Ablakwa, confirmed the arrangement, saying: “We have great relations with the Americans. Recently, we have had an understanding with them to accept West African nationals who have been pouring into our country.”
“Let us be clear, we did not agree to this because we agree with President Trump’s immigration policies. We are not doing the US a favour, we are doing our fellow Africans a favour, we are offering them refuge, we are offering them succour, we are offering them hope, we want them to come back home and be comfortable,” Ablakwa added.
Meanwhile, NiDCOM explained that the deportees were “not ordinary returnees” but individuals convicted of crimes or immigration violations in the US, hence the need for extensive screening before allowing them back into Nigeria.
“Those people who got deported are those who the US had already convicted for one crime or the other. They are not the kind of people that we just allow to enter the society like that; we have to profile them before their entrance,” Balogun said.
He noted that deportations from the US were not new, recalling that a previous batch of Nigerians was repatriated directly to Lagos two months ago.
“That is not the first deportation; we have an interagency committee in charge of deportation, especially for the US, and we have received the set of deportees from the US. They did not come through Ghana; they came in through Ikeja (Murtala Muhammed International Airport), Lagos. We received them some two months ago, so the one in Ghana is the new set,” he explained.
Balogun added that the US had earlier informed Nigerian authorities about plans to deport thousands of Nigerians.
“They (Nigerians) are many, they run into thousands. Six months ago, they (the US) had already told us that some thousands of Nigerians had been profiled to be deported, but we don’t know the procedure.
“Mr Trump is just doing it the way he likes. The others he brought them by himself through an American aeroplane, these ones, he had an agreement with Ghana, we don’t know how the next batch will come, but some of them are already in detention camps, some have been found guilty of one crime or the other, so America don’t want them again in their country.
“Some of them have overstayed their visas, so they have to profile them, know their countries, know their states, know their matter before releasing them,” he added.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing the deportees stranded in Togo have initiated legal action against both the US and Ghanaian governments, alleging violations of their clients’ rights.
According to the BBC, the deportees had earlier been held in a US detention facility before being flown out on a US military plane in shackles.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said, “I will find out from the consular section in Ghana if there is any official report on that.”
Efforts to reach one of the lawyers, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, were unsuccessful as messages and emails sent to him had not been responded to at the time of filing this report.
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