Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has reacted to international media reports about a United States deportation of a Salvadorian named Abrego Garcia to Ghana.
Various international media outlets on Friday, October 10, 2025, reported that the United States Department of Homeland Security said it now plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Ghana, according to a notice from the agency to his attorneys.
DHS previously said it was planning to deport Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador and then brought back to the U.S., to Eswatini and Uganda.
However, reacting to the reports in a Facebook post, Ablakwa clarified that Ghana is not accepting Abrego Garcia.
He contended that the information about Abrego’s deportation to Ghana has been “directly and unambiguously conveyed to US authorities.”
Ablakwa stressed that in Ghana’s engagement with US authorities, it was clearly agreed that Ghana will only accept non-criminal West Africans purely on grounds of solidarity and humanitarian and no other national.
“In my interactions with US officials, I made clear that our understanding to accept a limited number of non-criminal West Africans, purely on the grounds of African solidarity and humanitarian principles, would not be expanded.
“Ghana strongly objects to these misleading media reports,” he added.
In September 2025, Ghana agreed to accept non-Ghanaian West African nationals deported from the United States, sparking controversy and legal challenges.
The agreement was announced by President John Dramani Mahama, who said Ghana would not receive deportees with criminal backgrounds.
The first group of 14 West African deportees, including Nigerians and a Gambian, arrived in Ghana in September 2025. The government has since facilitated the repatriation of the non-Ghanaian nationals to their home countries.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament opposed the deal and called for the agreement to be suspended, arguing that it is unconstitutional, a national security risk, and was not ratified by Parliament.
They cited a 2017 Supreme Court ruling, which declared that international agreements creating binding obligations must be ratified by Parliament.
