US-Ghana deportation agreement is being contested in court due of constitutional and human rights issues
A Ghanaian rights organization has filed a lawsuit to stop a US deportation agreement, claiming possible migrant persecution and constitutional violations.
Under a deal between the two nations, a group of 14 West Africans were deported to Ghana as the most recent group, according to a lawyer whose organization has filed a lawsuit to stop the deal.
According to migrant advocate Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the most recent group of 14 West Africans came on Monday, increasing the total number of deportees the Ghanaian government has accepted to 42.
His group, Democracy Hub, sued Ghana’s government on Tuesday, claiming that the deal with Washington violates the constitution since it was not ratified by parliament and would go against international agreements that prohibit shipping people to nations where they might be persecuted.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a spokesman for the government, stated that the attorney general will defend the arrangement in court but would not elaborate.
Targeting those with criminal histories, especially those who would be difficult to deport back to their native countries, the administration of former US President Donald Trump launched a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Since July, the Trump administration has entered into highly confidential arrangements with at least five African countries to accept migrants under a new third-country deportation program, sending dozens of deportees to Africa.
According to rights groups, the program is opaque, sends deportees to nations with which they have no connection, and is likely to deny them due process. Critics also assert that even when their home countries were eager to take them in, migrants have occasionally been sent to other countries.
The United States deported 14 West African immigrants to Ghana last month. All of the deportees, according to authorities, were subsequently returned to their native countries in Togo, Nigeria, and Mali, among other West African nations.
But in September, their attorneys told the Associated Press that 11 of them were still being detained “in what they described as terrible conditions” at a military camp outside of Accra. Even though just two of those migrants are Togolese, Barker-Vormawor said that ten of them had since been deported to Togo.
In July, the United States deported a first set of five people to Eswatini, claiming that they had been found guilty of heinous crimes like rape of children and murder.
Other migrants have since been deported by Washington to South Sudan, Rwanda, and Ghana. It also has an arrangement with Uganda, though no deportations have been publicized there.
Rwanda has not revealed where it is keeping seven deportees, while South Sudan is still detaining six in an undisclosed location.
