Ghana sued over US deportation deal
A coalition of international lawyers has sued Ghana at West Africa’s top human rights court over its role in accepting migrants deported from the US under a third-country removal agreement.
The case was filed at the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States on behalf of 27 deportees sent to Ghana under the arrangement. The coalition includes the Global Strategic Litigation Council, a network of lawyers and advocates, Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP, and Cornell Law School’s Transnational Disputes Clinic.
Since returning to office in January 2025, US President Donald Trump has pursued agreements to deport asylum seekers and other migrants to countries where they have no ties as part of a wider crackdown on illegal immigration.
The policy has drawn widespread criticism, including from the African Union’s human rights body, over its secrecy and the alleged abuse of those transferred.
Ghana has accepted at least 60 people from the US since September 2025, according to the lawyers. The complaint said Accra is violating domestic and regional law by “facilitating removals to unsafe countries.”
“No person should be returned to a place where they face persecution, torture or serious threats to their dignity and safety,” Merton & Everett LLP senior partner Oliver Barker-Vormawor said, according to Al Jazeera.
The groups are seeking an order to halt further transfers under the deal, disclose its terms, award damages, and prevent the West African country from entering similar arrangements without safeguards.
The Ghanaian government has not publicly responded to the latest case.
Last September, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the government’s decision to accept West African migrants deported from the US was driven by humanitarian concerns, not support for Washington’s immigration policy.
Several African countries, including Eswatini, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, and Equatorial Guinea, have entered similar agreements with the Trump administration despite opposition from human rights groups.
On Monday, the Global Strategic Litigation Council announced a separate lawsuit against Equatorial Guinea at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on behalf of 14 deportees transferred from the US. The case accuses Equatorial Guinea of receiving $7.5 million from Washington to host the deportees.
“Some of them have already been forcibly removed by Equatorial Guinea to countries where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, sexual violence, imprisonment, and death,” it said.
In April, the Uganda Law Society said it approached the courts seeking orders to halt what it called a “patent international illegality” after a dozen third-country migrants were transferred to the East African country.
