Ghana is not accepting Abrego Garcia - Ablakwa rejects deportation intentions by US
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has responded to international media reports about a U.S. deportation of a Salvadoran 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 intends to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Ghana, according to a notice from the agency to his attorneys.
DHS previously said it was intending 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 allegations 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 emphasized that in Ghana’s engagement with US authorities, it was clearly agreed that Ghana will only accept non-criminal West Africans solely on grounds of solidarity and humanitarian, and not other nationalities.
“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
In September 2025, Ghana agreed to accept non-Ghanaian West African nationals who had been deported from the United States, sparking controversy and legal challenges.
The agreement was announced by President John Dramani Mahama, who stated that Ghana would not accept 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 non-Ghanaian nationals to their countries of origin.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament opposed the deal and urged the agreement to be suspended, arguing that it was unconstitutional, a national security risk, and had not been ratified by Parliament.
They cited a 2017 Supreme Court ruling, which declared that Parliament must ratify international agreements creating binding obligations.
“Ghana strongly objects to these misleading media reports,” he added.
