ACCRA: Ghana is accepting west Africans deported from the United States, Ghanaian President John Mahama said Wednesday.

Deporting people to third countries — in many cases places they’ve never lived — has been a hallmark of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, notably by sending hundreds to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Mahama told reporters Wednesday that Ghana had agreed to take in nationals from west Africa, where a regional agreement allows visa-free travel.

“We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the US. And we agreed with them that west African nationals were acceptable,” Mahama said.

He said a “first batch” of 14 people had come to Ghana, including “several” Nigerians who have since returned to their home countries though he did not provide a timeline for when that occurred. Another arrived from The Gambia.