America to deport 7000 Ghanaians - US Ambassador

The United States of America’s ambassador to Ghana, Robert P Jackson has revealed that about 7000 Ghanaians are being processed for deportation.

Mr. Jackson told a local media in the Brong Ahafo Region on Thursday, April 27 that they are on the process and do not feel sorry about that.

“In fact, about 7,000 of them are currently at different stages of the deportation process. And we are not apologetic about that,” he said.

Mr Jackson had earlier told Accra based Class FM that Ghanaians who have overstayed their visas in the US must be concerned because the new administration will ask them to depart.

“One thing that I do think that Ghanaians need to be aware of is, I think the president-elect, as I mentioned, is likely to be more rigid about illegal immigration. We have a lot of Ghanaians who have overstayed their visas in the U.S. and I think that they need to be concerned about whether they would be allowed to remain illegally. My guess is they will be given some options but the president will be serious about asking those who’ve violated their visa status to depart,” Mr Jackson said.According to him, the Trump administration would not paint every African country with the same brush. “Ghana’s economy is growing, Nigeria’s is shrinking. We have a very different relationship with Ghana. Ghana is more supportive of free trade and shares a long history of peaceful existence which Nigeria does not have, so I think we need to be cautious,” he added.

Just a week to the declaration of the US election results, the U.S. deported 108 Africans, 54 of them being Ghanaians. There were some 50 Liberians among the deportees as well. They refused to disembark from the plane that transported them to Accra describing as inhumane the treatment meted out to them by U.S. authorities.They claimed the U.S. officials were being hypocritical in their deportation as they were not treated with dignity while on board the plane en route to Accra.