Keypoints:
- Lawyers have filed a lawsuit against Ghana at the ECOWAS Court
- The case challenges Ghana’s role in US third-country deportations
- Ghana had not publicly responded to the allegations by publication time
LAWYERS representing migrants deported from the United States have sued Ghana at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, alleging the country helped facilitate returns to places where deportees risk persecution or torture. Ghana had not publicly responded to the claims by publication time.
The case centres on Ghana’s role in Washington’s third-country deportation programme under US President Donald Trump, under which migrants have been transferred to Ghana before being returned elsewhere. The ECOWAS Court has yet to consider the allegations or announce a hearing date. The lawsuit follows growing scrutiny of the arrangement after reports that Ghana could receive additional deportees from the United States.
Lawyers challenge Ghana’s role
The lawsuit was filed on Monday at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja by Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP, the Cornell Law School Transnational Disputes Clinic in the United States and the Global Strategic Litigation Council, a coalition of non-governmental organisations.
According to the legal coalition, the proceedings represent 27 deportees who were among at least 60 people transferred from the United States to Ghana since September under Washington’s third-country deportation policy. The legal challenge builds on concerns previously examined by Africa Briefing over Ghana’s handling of US deportees. The coalition alleges many of those individuals had previously obtained asylum or other legal protections in the United States before being removed from Ghana to their countries of origin or elsewhere.
Those allegations have not been tested in court.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor, senior partner at Merton & Everett LLP, said international law prohibits returning people to places where they face persecution, torture or other serious threats to their safety.
The claim alleges Ghana breached domestic and regional legal obligations by facilitating removals to countries the applicants considered unsafe. Ghana has not publicly responded to those allegations.
US deportation policy under scrutiny
The lawsuit forms part of broader legal challenges to the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The United States has increasingly relied on third-country deportations for migrants whom US courts ruled should not be returned directly to their home countries because they could face persecution or torture. Instead, some have been transferred to countries including Ghana before being removed elsewhere.
The Trump administration argues US law prevents direct removal to a country where an individual faces harm but does not necessarily prohibit transfers to a third country. Human rights groups dispute that interpretation, arguing it undermines the international principle of non-refoulement, which generally prohibits returning people to places where they face persecution, torture or other serious harm.
Ghana yet to disclose agreement
According to the legal coalition, Accra has disclosed few details of its arrangement with Washington beyond saying it would accept West African nationals under the programme.
The coalition also noted that the United States later lifted visa restrictions previously imposed on Ghana. Neither Washington nor Accra has publicly linked the two developments.
The lawyers said none of the 27 applicants named in the lawsuit remains in Ghana. They allege many are now hiding in their home countries or have fled to third countries while seeking protection. Those claims have not been independently verified.
Regional implications
The Ghana case follows a separate complaint filed earlier this month before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights concerning US deportations to Equatorial Guinea, another African country used under Washington’s third-country deportation programme. It also comes months after rights activists launched a separate legal challenge over Ghana’s migration agreement with Washington.
The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice serves as the judicial arm of the Economic Community of West African States. The court has not indicated when it will hear the case, and Ghanaian authorities had not publicly responded to the lawsuit by publication time.
