W’African deportees sue over US ‘third-country’ expulsions to Ghana

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Lawyers filed a suit against Ghana at West Africa’s top human rights court on behalf of deportees sent there under the United States’ third-country deportation policies, the legal team said Tuesday.

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As part of a sweeping crackdown on immigration, US President Donald Trump has expanded the categories of people targeted for deportation, including those with legal protections.

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In cases where Washington is barred from sending people home — after US judges found they likely face torture or persecution, for example — it has sent deportees to “third countries” such as Ghana.

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Ghana has then sent them home — or, as AFP has reported, dumped them in neighbouring Togo without documents.

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“No person should be returned to a place where they face persecution, torture or serious threats to their dignity and safety,” said Oliver Barker-Vormawor, senior partner at Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP.

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The firm, along with Cornell Law School Transnational Disputes Clinic in the United States, and the Global Strategic Litigation Council, a coalition of NGOs, filed the lawsuit Monday at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja.

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The court is the top judicial body for the Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc of 12 countries.

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– 60 US deportations –

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The lawsuit alleges Ghana is violating domestic and regional law by “facilitating removals to unsafe countries”, a statement from the legal coalition said.

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At least 60 people have been deported to Ghana since September, according to the lawyers, with 27 represented in the lawsuit.

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Beyond saying that it would only take west Africans, Accra has been mum on the terms of the agreement.

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But shortly after it came into effect, the United States reversed visa curbs it had placed on Ghana.

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A similar lawsuit was filed earlier in June at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to halt US deportations to Equatorial Guinea, which has also served as a way station for African deportees.

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Those in the ECOWAS lawsuit “had sought, and the majority had obtained asylum or other legal protections in the United States,” the legal coalition said.

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Under Trump, Washington is arguing that the law only prevents the United States from sending such people directly to their home countries.

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None of the 27 deportees in the lawsuit remain in Ghana, the lawyers said.

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“Many now remain in hiding in their home countries or have fled to third countries where they wait in limbo.”

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AFP

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