ACCRA (Reuters) -Ghana's decision to accept West Africans deported from the United States is not an endorsement of President Donald Trump's immigration policy, and the country is not receiving anything in return, the foreign minister said on Monday.
President John Dramani Mahama last week said Ghana had agreed to welcome an unspecified number of deportees after Washington asked it to take in "third-party nationals." Mahama said 14 had already arrived, including Nigerians and one Gambian.
A U.S. judge on Saturday said it appeared the Trump administration had intentionally circumvented immigration laws with its deportations to Ghana.
At a press conference on Monday, Ghana Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said Accra's decision was "grounded purely on humanitarian principle and Pan-African empathy," adding the deportees in question were being held in detention in the U.S. and risked being sent to unsafe countries.
"This should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of the immigration policies of the Trump administration," he said.
The agreement is "not transactional" and Ghana "has not received and does not seek any financial compensation or material benefit in relation to this understanding," he said.
The deportees will be vetted by Ghana to ensure that "hardened criminals" do not enter the country, he added.
The deportations are part of Trump's strategy to send migrants to "third countries" to speed their removal and pressure migrants in the U.S. illegally to leave.
Opposition lawmakers in Ghana last week called for the agreement with the U.S. to be suspended and said it should have been approved by parliament.
Ablakwa said on Monday it was a memorandum of understanding that did not require lawmakers' approval, but that lawmakers will be able to review it if it is "elevated into a full-blown agreement."
(Reporting by Emmanuel Bruce and Christian Akorlie; Writing by Ayen Deng Bior; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Christina Fincher)
