Ghanaians are the fifth highest in the world as far as the US deportation list is concerned, U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson, has revealed.

“Almost 7,000 Ghanaians in the U.S. are facing deportation”, Mr Jackson told journalists recently, adding: “And may I add; the number of Ghanaians in the U.S. facing deportation is the fifth highest number in the world after China, India, Russia and The Philippines, all of whom have much larger populations, so, let’s deal with this problem and get it out of the bilateral relationship”.

Mr Jackson said he is not happy about how the Government of Ghana and the Ghanaian Embassy in the U.S. is handling the deportation issue, which compelled his office to issue a statement on Thursday warning of visa restrictions against Ghana if the deportation concerns were not resolved.

He, however, clarified that: “The statement that the U.S. Embassy issued saying that Ghana could face visa sanctions is not a threat and I don’t want it to be a threat. What I want is for the Embassy of Ghana in the U.S. to interview one person facing deportation and issue one travel document every business day, if the embassy does that, we will solve this problem and it’s nothing more complicated than that”.

“I’ve been talking with the Government of Ghana over this for over two years, this is not hasty, I’ve talked to members of parliament, I’ve talked to people in the old government, I’ve talked to people in the current government, I am acting on instructions, this is not something that I initiated but we will enforce our immigration laws”, Mr Jackson insisted.