What to Know About Ghana’s Deportations Controversy

Welcome to Foreign policyAfrica’s summary.

The most prominent events this week: Ghana faces the increasing scrutiny of her dealing with The deportation of the third countries From the United States, Gainns votes on a new Draft constitutionand Criminal trial From South Sudan, First Deputy Rick Maher begins.

Inside Ghana’s deportation controversy

During the weekend, 11 West African immigrants who were sent to Ghana by the United States were deported again – some of them to their countries of origin, where they are afraid of their safety.

The immigrants were being paid by the Ghanaian government for its illegal detention at the time of their deportation. Their lawyer, Oliver Parker-Vorto, told a Ghanaian court on Tuesday that the deportation “is exactly the injury we were trying to prevent.” After that, the judge rejected the lawsuit.

The deportees were part of a group of 14 immigrants that the Trump administration sent to Ghana on September 5 through a deal to deport in the third countries with Accra; Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzito Appleakua said last week that the government expects another 40 passing through the United States in the coming days.

Ghana was characterized by the deportation of confusion and controversy. The government claimed last week that all 14 migrants were returned to their countries of origin, even when its lawyers said that 11 still being held in a Ghanaian military facility outside the capital of Accra. Ghana also said that the migrants were all Nigerians and Gambi, but the court documents showed that they came from Liberia, Mali and Togo as well.

The statements of the conflicting government have angered the opposition legislators in Ghana, who argued that the American deal is unconstitutional and should be suspended because the administration of President John Mahama did not consult with the Ghanaian parliament.

The opposition also said that the deal risks the country “is seen as compatible with the current migration system for the United States government, which has been subjected to harsh and discriminatory criticism.”

Five of the 14 individuals who were deported to Ghana filed a separate lawsuit against the US government, claiming that they were placed in Straitjackets for 16 hours during the trip to Ghana and faced “harsh conditions” there.

Ghana entered into the deal with the United States because it faced increasing pressure from Washington to accept immigrants. In March, 150 Ghanaians were held in the United States pending deportation. Four months later, the Trump administration imposed the main visa restrictions on the Ghanaians.

“We have been included in 36 countries that will be placed on a visa ban,” Mahama told local media earlier this month when he explained his country’s decision to agree to an agreement.

However, the Mahama administration insisted that the decision was primarily rooted in altruism towards other West Africa. “We could not continue to suffer from the suffering of our colleagues in West Africa,” said Ablakwa.

Ghana is part of an increasing list of African countries that accepted the transfer deals for the third countries with the United States, including Swatini, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. The conditions of the agreements were not publicly published, but according to Hummdight Watch, the Rwandan deal includes $ 7.5 million in US financial support, and Eswatini includes about $ 5.1 million to build “border management and migration capacity”.

Alan Najri, the director of the invitation in Africa in Human Rights Watch, said the African governments that accept these deals are exposed to “violation of international law.” We urge the African Union to “emphasize that deportations that do not give people an opportunity to search for protection from persecution or torture illegal, abusive and unacceptable.”

next week

Wednesday, September 24, to Thursday, September 25: The Business Forum is held in the United Kingdom-Africa in London.

Thursday, September 25: The energy investment summit is held in Africa in New York.

Thursday, September 25, to Saturday, September 27: Seychelles held the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Tuesday, September 30: The United Nations Security Council is discussing the multinational support task led by Kenya in Haiti, which ends on October 2.

What we watch

Malawi elections. Lieutenant President Lazaros Chakuera admitted a defeat in the presidential elections held last week. The stagnant economy, fuel deficiency, and high inflation have fueled support for the main Chakwera rival and predecessor, former President Peter Motatika.

“I hear these frustrations, and I accept responsibility for the places where my administration excelled,” said Chakuerra. The official results announced late on Wednesday showed that Mutharika won 57 percent of the vote, compared to 33 percent of ChakWra.

Guinea referendum. Guinnez voted on a draft constitution on Sunday that would allow General Mama Dumboy to run for the presidency. Dumboya, who led a military coup in 2021, who toppled the authoritarian president Alpha Conde, failed to fulfill the date of 2024 set by the economic community in West African countries to hand over power to a civilian government.

Among the other changes, the constitution will allow JUNTA members to run for positions, expand the presidential period from five to seven years, and allows the president to appoint a third of the country’s Senate members directly. The temporary results indicated that about 89 percent of the voters supported the reforms.

The main opposition parties in the country, which were suspended before the referendum, described the poll as “Charade” in advance. Critics also say that the referendum was more than just a way to give legitimacy to seize the army’s strength.

Kenyan delivery. A British soldier accused of killing a 21 -year -old Kenyan woman may face Agnes and Lugro in 2012 for a request for delivery after a decade of public pressure on the Kenyan government. Last week, the Nairobi Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Robert James Burks, who was charged with killing and engraving.

Wanjiru’s body was found in a manufacturing tank in a hotel near British army barracks in Nanioca, about 125 miles north of Nairobi. She was wounded by multiple stab wounds, and according to what was reported last time with British soldiers. According to Sunday Times The investigation in 2021, claimed that the British forces paid Wanju and other local women to have sex on the night they were killed.

In 2023, the Kenyan government began official investigations into complaints of total human rights violations claimed by a British training unit. Britain has kept the military individuals in Kenya since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1963; About 200 British soldiers are permanently.

Vice President of South Sudan in court. The criminal trial began at the first vice president suspended in southern Sudan, Rick Mashr, on Monday in the capital of Juba. Machar was under house arrest since March after the 2018 power sharing arranged with President Salva Kiir.

Machar and others face many charges, including betrayal. Kiir accuses the Machar party, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement, and its military wing of collusion with the White Army, an armed group that was fighting the Kiir army fighting in the Upper Nile State. Machar’s lawyer has argued that he should not be tried because he suffers from immunity as a vice president.

Meanwhile, the United Nations report, which was released last week, described the conflict that was revealed as “fully designed” and indicated that the “corrupt elite” was wandering around the country’s wealth for “personal gains.” According to the report, an infrastructure program has transferred an estimated $ 2.2 billion to political elites, including businessman Benjamin Paul Mail – Khalaf Mukhtar Kiir, who was appointed as Vice President in February.

Financial mining code. The Mali Military Command officially applied a new mining law – which increases the ownership of the state from 20 percent to 35 percent and royalties from 6.5 percent to 10 percent – to new extraction and exploration contracts on Friday.

Australian mining agreements are related to the Australian mining mines; Canadian company B2GOULD; And Jansfing, the largest Li -Tuming producer in China.

Meanwhile, four mining employees in Barrick remain in prison after the Canadian mining worker refused to request the military council to increase state royalties and shares.

This week in culture

Old Millennium scrap. The Egyptian authorities said last week that a 3000 -year -old bracelet was stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which was melted for scrap gold.

The history of the artifacts dates back to around 1000 BC and belongs to the King Amenemope. He was stolen by a restoration specialist before being sent with other treasures to an external exhibition at the Scoderi del Kereneal Museum in Rome. It was finally sold for about $ 4,000.

The theft comes at a time when Cairo is preparing for the full opening of the largest archaeological museum in the world – the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is worth one billion dollars – on November 1.

What we read

War recruits in Russia. A series of investigations before Zam Magazine and Instituent times Details of how Moscow promised to employ and vocational training for young people who reseatible work from the Great Lakes region in Africa, as well as Zambia and Cameroon, but it ended up sending some to the front lines in Ukraine and many of them unmanned in dangerous working conditions.

In Zambia, young women were seduced by brochures and “events hosted by Russian associations in the capital, and even talk shows on private television” with “smiling girls in a school -like costume, accompanied by certificates praising the wonderful opportunities,” writer Charles Mafa writes.

The returns of forced Nigeria. Since 2021, the Nigerian government has been closing camps hosting more than a million people internally displaced, claiming that it had almost defeated Boko Haram and that the conditions were safe for people to return to their homes.

But in Al JazeeraKurutsi Bitrus reports from the Muna camp in Maiduguri, where the displaced people refuse to return home amid emission in Boko Haram attacks. And one of the women said: “Until the news of bloodshed appears strange in our ear, we will stay.”