Ghana has received the first batch of 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.

A group of 14 deportees including Nigerians and one Gambian have already arrived in Ghana, and the government facilitated their return to their home countries, Mahama said at a press conference.

Mahama did not specify a cap on how many deportees Ghana would accept.

He justified the decision by saying West Africans "don't need a visa anyway" to come to Ghana.

Visa-free travel

The Ghanaian president said his country 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.

President Trump aims to deport millions of immigrants in the US and his administration has sought to ramp up removals to third countries, including sending convicted criminals to South Sudan and Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland.

Ghana has long been home to Nigerian immigrants, though recent weeks have seen sporadic anti-Nigerian protests in several cities where groups of demonstrators demanded their expulsion, blaming them for rising crime, prostitution and unfair economic competition.

In late July, Nigeria sent a special envoy and its foreign ministry urged calm while Ghanaian and Nigerian officials held talks to defuse tensions.

The deportation agreement comes as Washington has hiked tariffs on Ghanaian goods and restricted visas issued to its nationals.

‘Tightening’ relations

Mahama described relations between Accra and Washington as "tightening", though he said relations remained positive.

Neighbouring Nigeria, for its part, has pushed back against accepting third-party deportees.

"The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons," Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said in an interview with local broadcaster Channels Television in July.

"It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners," he said, going on to suggest that recent tariff threats were related to the issue of deportations.

In an unprecedented move, Trump has overseen the deportation of hundreds of people to Panama, including some who were sent away before they could have their asylum applications processed.

Hundreds have also been sent to El Salvador, with the US administration invoking an 18th century law to remove people it has accused of being Venezuelan gang members.

Some were sent despite US judges ordering the planes carrying them to turn around.