- The US deportee who was videoed being forcibly ejected by Ghana Immigration personnel has shared her story
- Rabbiatu Kuyateh said her wrists and ankles were shackled for the entire 10-hour flight from the US to Ghana
- They stayed in a hotel in Accra for six days before the forceful ejection which was videoed and went viral
The family of Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a Sierra Leonean who was dragged on the floor in a hotel in Accra and forcibly sent to her home country, Sierra Leone, is demanding justice for her.
Rabbiatu Kuyateh was deported from the US, where she worked as a licensed nurse. She had lived in America for 35 years.
Photo credit: @gis.gov.gh/Facebook & @sierraeyesalone/X
Source: UGC
In a video shared by @sikaofficial1 on X, her son, Mohamed Alghali, his mother fled Sierra Leone’s civil war. She was later joined by her parents, who became citizens. Mohamed Alghali was born in America.
However, his mother, Rabbiatu Kuyateh, never became a citizen but had a work permit that allowed her to work as a nurse. According to her son, she checked in every year with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
When she went to the agency in July, she did not expect to be deported to Africa. But officials told her she had an order of removal and got her detained.
Her son said they sought legal assistance, and a judge granted an order stating she could not be sent back to Sierra Leone, where she had previously been tortured.
The US then searched for other African countries to deport her to, and she was brought to Ghana.
Speaking to her son on the phone, Rabbiatu Kuyateh said her wrists and ankles were shackled for the entire 10-hour flight. She and other deportees were taken to a hotel upon arrival in Ghana.
She added that they stayed there for six days before the video captured her being dragged. She said a bus was waiting outside the hotel to take her to Sierra Leone, defying the US judge’s order.
She resisted, and that was when she was dragged.
Rabbiatu Kuyateh said she is safe for now at an undisclosed location in Sierra Leone, but she wants to be with her family.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone High Commission is said to have intervened, raising serious human rights concerns and demanding accountability from the Ghanaian government.
Watch the video below:
Reactions to immigration officer dragging deportee
YEN.com.gh collated some reactions to the video where Rabbiatu Kuyateh and her family shared her deportation story. Read them below:
@GhanaSocialUni said:
“NGL Okudzeto Ablakwah and the NDC need to be questioned by parliament and reprimanded.”
@kofivava wrote:
“A daughter of the land is sent back and this is how you treat her? Shame.”
@Ericetse said:
“Imagine this was Nana Addo’s government, that guy with his teeth like rake will be all over the place. This is human right violations!”
@CryptoBugs2 wrote:
“As sad as this is, I still wonder how you spend 35 years in the US as a tax paying citizen, you give birth there but your papers are not in order, you don’t have the citizenship. What are these people doing?”
@samuelkwakye58 said:
“This is what happens when you agree to do someone else’s dirty work. If the US wants to deport immigrants to their home country why don’t they just send them back to their country? Instead you have decided to be used, that’s the end result.”
Source: YEN.com.gh
Source: Yen.com.gh
