Some of 63 Ghanaians who were deported to Ghana are claiming they were treated like criminals upon their arrest in the United States where they were put in jail with hardened criminals for at least a year.
Some of them say they were in prison custody for 18 months without any charge until their eventual deportation to Accra on Wednesday. The all males were handcuffed as they disembarked from the chartered Delta Airline Flight from the US.
Most of them had no belongings while those with little goods were wrapped in rubber sacks with some holding bread and pastries that they were served in the flight.
Each was given GHS100 for transportation from Accra to their various destinations. They were screened by the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Police Service before they left the Airport.
Although they admitted going to the US illegally, they handed themselves to authorities on arrival but as refugees. According to some of them, they were handcuffed and sent to prisons for eighteen months. Others claim they were arrested on the streets of US and sent to prisons without any charges, and while there, they were served with food meant for dogs and pigs. One of the deportees, Richmond Acheampong, on Thursday recounted what he termed as horrific tribulations that he and others suffered while awaiting deportation to Ghana. Speaking on Onua FM Thursday, he said he spent over a year moving from one prison cell to the other when he was picked up by immigration authorities.
“I was first detained in Mexico where I spent 14 days in prison before I was allowed to go. Then I later moved to U.S to seek for asylum but I was picked and handed over to the immigration officials there and I was detained at the Alabama prison which is akin to a jail cell. The place was very bad” Acheampong narrated. He said he lost a court case at Washington where he spent eight months in prison, adding he was transferred to Indiana where he spent six months and later to Arizona for a week. Prior to embarking on the journey to seek greener pastures, the 42-year-old man who is married with two kids worked as electrical appliance mechanic in Ghana.
He said he spent over 3,000 dollars from Brazil to US. He told Onua FM that he has learnt lessons from this harrowing experience but says “I’m not perturbed, because in this life everyone and what has been destined for him. Some would go there and make it while others may go and not make it”. Acheampong advised those wishing to embark on such journey to make sure they acquire all necessary documents, indicating that the U.S is a nice place to live only if one has the right documents.
Source: 3news.com
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Please, be objective with your comments. These people were arrested by a BLACK president BARRACK OBAMA and not Trump. Trump is less than a year in power and these people said they've spent over a year in jail. Trump rather is the one who have given them the FREEDOM that they need.
The simple answer is that an illegal immigrant in the US is a criminal offence therefore as a crimminal who has broken the law they can choose to manhandle you and do anyting to you and please forget about human rights it does not exist in their books ; amensty international cannot do fokooooo !!!! to the US ; even these Arab counteries -Saudi Arabia treat our people like slave and even kill them ; what has the amenesty international done about that ; if you want to travel abroad just do you hme work well ; do not just get up and go ; ask awakward questions and do not waste your dollars to get a vistors visa ; thinking if you get there these US immigration officers will welcome you with open arms ; these officers are so racist they cannot wait to get rid of you ; just forget about Amenesty International
where is amnesty international to come and answer the reason why they must be handcuffed in the plane
Thanks so much
Kkwasiasem...u go to Brazil for the FIFA tournament and decided to escape to America and now u want us to sympathize with you...non.sense,they should have fried you people.
I am Ghanaian American citizen and my advice to all Ghanaians is that , don't leave your job and come to the US with visitors visa at this point that Trump is president of our country. Am urging all citizens of Ghana 🇬🇭 that visitors visa to the US is not guaranteed that you would be allowed to remained in US after your expected duration has expired. The Homeland Security is deporting in record numbers so please don't waste your $20,000 dollars to come to the us US and jailed for nothing . Thanks for reading
You do not have understanding of different laws on immigration and you decided to test your idea on USA and it backfired and you are deported to your country which you run from wrongly. This is a big lesson to and maybe the children who would come that there are laws in every country and you cannot just choose to break it without understanding and destroy your endeavours.