Ghana is gradually becoming a dumping ground for the so-called “illegal migrants” from the United States and Europe, perhaps for little diplomatic recognition.
In January 2016, the Government of Ghana accepted the transfer of two Yemeni ex-detainees from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay for two years, despite popular opposition in Ghana.
A few weeks ago, President John Mahama confirmed that 14 American migrants of Nigerian and Gambian origin had arrived in Ghana under a USA-Ghana migrant repatriation deal. Just last week, the government announced that it would soon receive an additional 40 West African migrants from the US. The announcement came as Mahama’s administration faces mounting criticism and legal action over a controversial agreement with the Trump administration to accept more West African migrants from the United States. The deal has been described as an attempt by the Trump administration to circumvent US immigration laws.
Migrants sue government
Eleven out of the 14 deportees have reportedly sued the Ghana government for illegal detention at a military base. This is because some of the deportees are believed to have legal protection against being sent back to their home countries due to risks of persecution or torture.
The policy, which is part of Trump’s expanded deportation program to multiple nations, remains highly controversial and ethically disputed in the United States and across the world. It has sparked sharp debate about its human rights implications in both Accra and Washington. In the US, a federal judge accused the administration of skirting immigration protections for vulnerable migrants, while opposition Members of Parliament in Ghana are demanding parliamentary approval for what they describe as an illegal act.
Government defence
Meanwhile, the government has defended its decision to accept a limited number of third-country migrants deported from the United States, arguing that it does not amount to endorsing the Trump administration’s immigration policies. According to Ghana’s foreign minister, Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana accepted the migrants on the grounds of Pan Africanism and humanitarianism. I beg to differ. What is Pan African and humanitarian about hosting fellow Africans whose rights have been abused? That argument is illogical and does not make sense. It amounts to diplomatic naivety. We cannot mortgage our national sovereignty and dignity for a diplomatic pittance.
On the contrary, the revolutionary governments of Burkina Faso and Mali have rejected similar offers or pressure to accept migrants to their countries. The two governments have also imposed retaliatory visa requirements against US citizens who plan to visit their countries. As far as the Sahelian countries are concerned, there is no more anything like “big brother” and “small brother” in diplomacy and international relations. If you hit them, they will hit back immediately with equal measure. Captain Ibrahim Traore has indicated that Burkina Faso is not a refugee camp for repatriated migrants. “Africa is not a room for expansion”, he pointed out.
Human rights violations
Many political analysts argue that by accepting illegal migrants from the United States, our government is condoning the violation of the human rights of the victims. As long as the government continues to allow Ghana as a dumping ground, current and subsequent United States governments will be motivated to arrest and repatriate more migrants.
That is why I support the 11 migrants for suing the Ghana Government over violating their human rights. I insist that Ghana must not be a dumping ground for so-called migrants from America and Europe, because of the obvious abuse of their human rights. Well-meaning Ghanaians want our fellow Africans and Africans in the diaspora to come to Ghana based on the opportunities, cultural experience and human dignity we offer them.
Personally, I detest any Africans coming to Ghana in chains and tagged as illegal migrants. To forcefully move people from one country to another against their will constitutes a grievous human rights violation. The lip service Western countries pay as the torchbearers of human rights is apparent here. Western leaders only trumpet human rights violations when citizens of their countries are the victims, but become blind and deaf to human rights abuses when Africans are the victims. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have been quiet over the Trump administration’s violations of the rights of migrant,s but have been very loud about the rights of the LGBTQ community. Are LGBTQ rights more valuable than the rights of African migrants?
I want to put it on record that the majority of Americans detest the discriminatory and forced repatriation policy of the Trump administration. Recently, a pilot working for one of the airlines in the United States refused to pilot an aircraft carrying ‘illegal migrants’ outside America. He did that on the grounds of ‘conscientious objector.” The pilot’s bravery and gesture spoke for millions of Americans who are againstthe forced repatriation of migrants outside America.
Whither globalisation
A few decades ago, Western countries developed and implemented the concept of globalisation to depict a new global order. They convinced all of us that the world was now a global village, where all borders and barriers had been removed. Even Western universities developed master’s and PhD courses on globalisation and offered scholarships to African students to study globalisation. It appears, however, that the West’s interpretation of globalisation justified its unhindered access to Africa’s natural resources and policy space. They never meant that Africans would have equal access to their countries for greener pastures. As they preached globalisation, they also tightened their immigration policies to deter Africans from entering their countries to work, except for education and the payment of huge school fees that kept their universities in business.
Whither the land of opportunity?
Growing up as a child, I heard and read a lot about America as a land of opportunity, where people went and transformed their lives. I also read several literatures about the ignoble and repugnant slave trade during which millions of our African ancestors were forcefully moved to toil and labour for the transformation of the new world, or what is now called the United States of America.
While other races, such as the Europeans, Indians, Chinese, Arabs etc easily succeeded in the United States, Africans and Africans in the diaspora continued to be denied equal rights in the land of opportunity. We need to be reminded that African blood, sweat and energy laid the foundation for the economic transformation of America, even to its status as the world’s superpower. Why Africans and Africans in the diaspora continue to be tagged as violent, criminals and unproductive is part of the Western agenda to continue the marginalisation of Africa.
Why do America and European
Which countries have the largest number of Africans and African American males in their prisons? Several explanations have been offered, but the most poignant explanation is that incarcerating or criminalising African American males takes away their humanity, breaks down their families and undermines their capacity to progress. And the judicial, the penal, security and immigration systems in Western countries are part of the architecture to dehumanise Africans and Africans in the diaspora.
Blood and sweat of Africa
In one of his landmark speeches, then President Akufo-Addo reminded Emmanuel Macron, the French President, that most of Europe and the United States were built on the blood and sweat of Africans. He recalled the tears and horror of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, as well as colonial exploitation, which were designed to undermine Africa’s development. “For centuries, the world has been unable to confront the realities and the consequences of the slave trade”, he pointed out. According to Akufo-Addo, now an ex-president, “it is time to revisit the topic of repatriation to Africans.” Ironically, Western countries have avoided the topic of reparations but are instead repatriating the very Africans on whose blood and sweat their countries were built. The ex-president explained that though the current generation of Western citizens were not the architects and implementers of the slave trade, they are the beneficiaries of the present-day economic architecture of the slave trade.
What is wrong is wrong
Given the role of Africans in the development and transformation of Europe and America, forced repatriation of migrants in search of greener pastures is wrong and must be condemned by the international community. That is why I hold the Ghana government equally culpable for violating the human rights of the migrants. Americans must uphold and respect the part of their Constitution which states that “All men are created equal and have inalienable rights”, except that they meant that this great constitutional provision does not include Africans and African Americans.
Renowned Ghanaian Poet and writer, Ama Atta Aidoo, in a seminal interview with a Western journalist, aske,d “Where will the whole Western world be without Africans? Everything you have is us”, she stated. She added, “in return for all this, what have we got? Nothing, nothing”, the renowned writer of blessed memory said.
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The writer is a Development and Communications Management Specialist and a Social Justice Advocate.
All views expressed in this article are his personal views and do not represent those of any organisation (s).
(Email: safoamos@gmail.com)
