American-Africa deportations: sent to Ghana then transferred

A Nigerian expelled from the United States in Ghana told the BBC that he was now stuck in a Togo hotel after he and five others were secretly transferred to the neighboring country by Ghanaian officers.

The man said they had been informed that they would be moved from a military camp for better accommodation, but were then “thrown” in Togo. The BBC approached the Ghana government to comment.

The American government has expelled the Nigerian man – as well as other West African nationals – as part of his repression against immigration.

Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, previously said that the government had accepted the deportees in the spirit of “Pan -African empathy”.

The Nigerian, who asked for anonymity for security reasons, alleged that the Ghanaian officers took him, as well as the other five deportees, in Togo by reverse. He also said that it was done after wearing local police and without informing the Togolese authorities of their entry.

“They didn’t take us through the main border, they took us through the back door. They paid the police there and dropped us into Togo,” he said.

The Togolese authorities did not comment on the presumed presence of deportees on their territory.

Four of the group – three Nigerians and a Liberian – then registered in a hotel in Lomé, the Togolese capital, which is right in front of the border of the place where they were abandoned.

Without their own document, he said they were counting on hotel staff to receive parents’ money abroad to cover their invoices.

“We have trouble surviving Togo without any documentation,” he said.

“None of us have family in Togo. We are just stuck in a hotel,” he added. “Right now, we are just trying to survive until our lawyers can help us in this situation.”

He said that while during Ghana, they asked for better living conditions since the environment of the military camp where they were placed was “deplorable”.

“Life was really difficult, so we asked for a better place, better drugs, better health care and better water,” the Nigerian told the BBC.

He said that that day later, immigration officials arrived at the camp, saying they took six to a hotel for more comfort, but they found themselves on the other side of the border in Togo.

“When we arrived, we asked what we were doing on the border, and they told us they wanted us to sign the paperwork so that they can take us to a hotel, but we have signed nothing,” he added.

The Nigerian told the BBC that the linguistic barrier in Togo made communication difficult. The official language of Togo is French, while he spoke English.

He also said that his deportation had assigned his family to the United States.

“I have a house in the United States where my children live. How am I supposed to pay the mortgage? I do not know how they will manage while I left. My children cannot see me, and it’s so stressful,” he deplored.

He said he was a member of the Yoruba self-determination movement, a militant organization defending a state escaping in southwest Nigeria for the Yoruba ethnic group.

Although the movement is not prohibited, it was in the Reticule of the Nigerian government, 27 people arrested last year for being involved in its campaign.

Due to his affiliation with the group, the man told the BBC that he feared that the return to Nigeria would lead to his arrest and torture. The Nigerian deportee said he was under protection commissioned by the United States court which should have protected him from the expulsion of the United States.

The United States has not given the reason for its expulsion.

The Nigerian was part of a Western group expelled in Ghana last month, which also included nationals of Togo, Liberia and Gambia.

They had previously been detained in an American detention center before being transported by American military aircraft in channels, said their lawyers.

The “deportation of the third country” policy of the US government was faced with criticism, several countries pushing the strategy, notably Nigeria.

The agreement that Ghana undertakes nationals of various West African countries was announced by President John Mahama three weeks ago. He said that he had been approached by the United States to accept the deportees and that he had agreed because there was the free movement of people in West Africa.

Foreign Minister Ablakwa has since said that Ghana had received no financial award for accepting the deportees.

Opposition deputies demanded an immediate suspension of the expulsion agreement until it is ratified by the Parliament, but the government said it was planning to accept 40 other deportees.

Deportees’ lawyers have started legal action against American and Ghanaian governments, saying that their rights had been raped.