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Ghanaian gay man fears he’ll be killed if deported from USA

Ibrahim, who arrived in the USA at the San Ysidro U.S. border checkpoint between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, said he fled home after he was ambushed and attacked by an anti-gay group.

In 2015, Ibrahim said in his testimony, anti-gay activists in Ghana had attacked one of his friends. His friend was forced give up the names of his gay acquaintances and his named was mentioned.

According to The Intercept, Ibrahim was warned by another friend to leave the area. As he went home to pack his belongings, the anti-gay gang in the area attacked him.

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Ibrahim says he was stabbed in his left arm and only just managed to escape by hailing down a nearby taxicab.

“They stabbed me and gave me a cut on my back and hand. I received treatment at the hospital. I couldn’t walk for one week,” he told the asylum officer, The Intercept said.

“The group posted the incident on the social media with a picture of me. They said that I was gay and asked people to arrest me whenever they saw me.”

According to the report, Ibrahim didn’t report the incident to the police out of fear. While hiding out in a nearby town, he plotted his escape to the United States. He had made it to Tijuana via Brazil and then Belize, paying a man he met there $500 to help guide him into Mexico.

When asked what he thought would happen if he returned to Ghana, he responded, “I fear I am going to die. I will be killed.”

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His lawyers are working for his stay in the USA to regularised as he could be deported back to Ghana at any moment.

They have accused USA immigration officials of ignoring evidence that Ibrahim's attackers in Ghana will hunt him once he is deported back to Ghana.

According to the report, the leader of the anti-gay gang that had attacked Ibrahim and his friends was arrested but has been given bail.

Ibrahim has since been transferred to a facility in South Texas, where his case has gained attention from immigration activists and advocacy groups in the local community, the report said.

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He is now represented by a human rights legal team, which is urgently trying to appeal the judge’s decision and get a new asylum hearing before he is sent back to Ghana.

Ibrahim is said to be “terrified,” as deportation proceedings have begun, and he could be sent back as soon as the paperwork is finished.

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