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US to deport 7,000 Ghanaians – Ambassador
About 7,000 Ghanaian immigrants in the United States face deportation for visa-related offenses including staying illegally, over staying their permits.
This was disclosed to local media by the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Robert Jackson on Thursday.
“In fact about 7000 of them are currently at different stages of the deportation process. And we are not apologetic about that,” the U.S. Ambassador was quoted by local news portal Starr FM Online.
This comes hours after the United Kingdom blacklisted three serving legislators of Ghana’s Parliament over visa fraud.
The MPs had left their relatives to live in the UK illegally after traveling with them to the country.
“The British High Commission considers the actions completely unacceptable. In some cases these behaviours may arguably be criminal in nature,” the British High Commission noted.
Last year, the United States deported 108 Ghanaian immigrants for reasons including drug-related offences, staying illegally, over staying their permits and other crimes.
They were returned to the Kotoka International Airport in November.
The deportees refused to disembark from the plane in protest of alleged inhumane treatment including shackling before and during the journey.
It took the intervention of Ghanaian security and immigration officials to convince them to disembark after over an hour.
U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to deport illegal immigrants and immigrants with criminal records as part of his immigration laws to be rolled out.
Despite former President Barack Obama’s push for immigration reforms, a record 2 million deportations have been executed during his administration.
