By Nosmot Gbadamosi/ Over the weekend, 11 West African migrants who had been sent to Ghana by the United States were deported again—some to their home countries, where they fear for their safety.
The migrants were suing the Ghanaian government for unlawful detainment at the time of their deportation. Their lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawo, told a Ghanaian court on Tuesday that deportation “is precisely the injury we were trying to prevent.” The judge subsequently dismissed the lawsuit.
The deportees were part of a group of 14 migrants that the Trump administration sent to Ghana on Sept. 5 via its third-country deportation deal with Accra; Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said last week that the government expects 40 more deportees from the United States in the coming days.
Ghana’s handling of the deportations has been marked by confusion and controversy. The government claimed last week that all 14 migrants had been sent back to their countries of origin, even as their lawyers said that 11 continued to be detained in a Ghanaian military facility outside the capital of Accra. Ghana also said that the migrants were all Nigerians and a Gambian national, but court documents showed that they came from Liberia, Mali, and Togo as well.
The government’s conflicting statements have sparked anger among Ghana’s opposition lawmakers, who have argued that the U.S. deal is unconstitutional and should be suspended because President John Mahama’s administration did not consult the Ghanaian parliament.
Also Read: Trump orders historic mass deportation as protests erupt
The opposition has also said that the deal risks the country “being perceived as aligning itself with the U.S. government’s current immigration enforcement regime, one which has been criticized as harsh and discriminatory.”
Five of the 14 individuals deported to Ghana have filed a separate lawsuit against the U.S. government, alleging that they were put in straitjackets for 16 hours during the flight to Ghana and faced “squalid conditions” there.
Ghana struck the deal with the United States as it faced increased pressure from Washington to accept migrants. In March, 150 Ghanaians were detained in the United States awaiting deportation. Four months later, the Trump administration imposed major visa restrictions on Ghanaians.
“We were included in 36 countries that were going to be placed on a visa ban,” Mahama told local media earlier this month when explaining his country’s decision to agree to a deal.
Yet Mahama’s administration insisted that the decision was rooted primarily in altruism toward other West Africans. “We just could not continue to take the suffering of our fellow West Africans,” Ablakwa said.
Ghana is part of a growing list of African nations that have accepted third-country deportation deals with the United States, including Eswatini, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uganda. The terms of the agreements have not been made public, but according to Human Rights Watch, the Rwandan deal includes $7.5 million in U.S. financial support, and Eswatini’s includes around $5.1 million to build “border and migration management capacity.”
African governments accepting those deals risk “violating international law,” Allan Ngari, Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said. Ngari urged the African Union to “reiterate that deportations that do not afford people an opportunity to seek protection from persecution or torture are unlawful, abusive, and unacceptable.”
Foreign Policy
