West African nationals deported by US to Ghana have all been sent to their home countries

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — A group of 14 West Africans deported from the U.S. to Ghana have all been sent to their home countries of Nigeria and Gambia, the Ghanaian government spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday.

Authorities in Ghana have defended accepting the deportees on humanitarian grounds. The deportees, including 13 Nigerians and one Gambian, “have since left for their home countries,” Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Ghana’s minister for government communications, told the AP.

At a press briefing in the capital of Accra on Monday, Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa also pushed back on criticism that the decision was an endorsement of the U.S. President Donald Trump’s migration policies, saying that Ghana accepted the third-country deportees “purely on humanitarian principle.”