President John Dramani Mahama has called on world leaders to confront the injustices faced by migrants, stressing that migration should not be framed and addressed through racism or fear.
Addressing the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York (UNGA80), he linked global inequality, climate change, and forced displacement, urging the international community to uphold fairness and dignity.
“Let’s dispense with the euphemisms and dog whistles and speak frankly. It is not a mystery that when leaders of Western nations complain of their migration problems they are often referring to immigrants from the global south.
”But many of those immigrants are climate refugees and interestingly the global north emits 75% more greenhouse gases than the global south”
President John Dramani Mahama
President Mahama argued that many of those people are climate refugees escaping crises caused disproportionately by the developed world. According to him, while the global north emits “nearly three-quarters more greenhouse gases than the south,” it is poorer nations that bear the harshest effects.
“When the desert encroaches on our villages and towns and they become unlivable, we are forced to flee,” he added, explaining how the eventual environmental decline forces entire communities to leave their homes in search of better climates and living conditions.
President Mahama turned to literature to illustrate the human dimension of migration. He cited Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, who wrote that no parent puts a child in danger unless there is no safer alternative, highlighting the dilemma that migrants face.
“‘No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land. No one bends their palms under trains beneath carriages. No one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck feeding on newspapers unless the miles traveled mean something more than just a journey’”
President John Dramani Mahama
The President then warned world leaders against complacency in dealing with immigration, noting that indifference would only worsen divisions. “We cannot normalize cruelty. We cannot normalize hatred. We cannot normalize xenophobia and racism,” he declared.
Celebrating Migrant Achievements
President Mahama balanced his warnings with recognition of the positive impact migrants and their children have had around the world. He referenced Maame Ewusi Mensah Frimpong, a US federal judge whose Ghanaian parents settled in America, calling her a symbol of how immigrant backgrounds enrich societies.
He also highlighted Dr. Peter Bossman, a Ghanaian doctor who settled in Slovenia and became mayor of the town of Piran, the first black mayor in both Slovenia and Eastern Europe. Michael Tetteh Nartey, a Ghanaian-Norwegian artist and designer, was mentioned as another figure whose influence extends across borders.
He added that the late Kofi Annan, Ghanaian-born former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, embodied the global contributions of migrants.
“These are people who have brought great distinction to the countries that they decided to call home. Just as the migrants and the children of migrants before them did, I dare say these are not invaders, these are not criminals”
President John Dramani Mahama
Throughout his speech, President Mahama pressed for honesty in global conversations on migration. He said migrants are too often scapegoated for deeper structural problems, when in fact their lives tell stories of courage and resilience, amidst bigger factors at play.
The President framed migration not as a crisis but as part of humanity’s shared history and argued that the current era of displacement should compel nations to embrace compassion and cooperation rather than exclusion.
By linking climate change, social justice, and migration, President Mahama reaffirmed Ghana’s call for global accountability. His appeal at the Assembly was a reminder that in a world shaped by movement and interdependence, solidarity remains the only sustainable path.
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