Ghana is not accepting Abrego Garcia as part of US deportees — Foreign Affairs Minister

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has clarified that Ghana will not accept Salvadoran national, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, under the third-party deportation arrangement with the United States.

According to a report by ABC News on Thursday, October 9, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to deport Abrego Garcia, who has been accused of being a member of the criminal gang MS-13, to Ghana.

The move has been met with widespread criticism from several quarters, including the Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, and the Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh.

Reacting to the reports in a social media post on Friday, October 10, Mr. Ablakwa, who had earlier explained that the arrangement only covers West Africans, maintained that Abrego Garcia cannot be deported to Ghana.

He stressed that government has already communicated its firm position to U.S. authorities, rejecting any expansion of the agreement.

“Ghana is not accepting Abrego Garcia. He cannot be deported to Ghana. This has been directly and unambiguously conveyed to U.S. authorities.

“In my interactions with U.S. officials, I made it 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,” he wrote.