Eleven people who were detained in Ghana after being deported from the U.S. have sued the West African nation’s government, their lawyer has said.
Oliver-Barker Vormawor alleges that the deportees did not violate any Ghanaian law, and their detention in a military camp is therefore illegal. He added that he wants the government to produce the group in court and justify why they are being held against their will.
The government has not yet commented on the lawsuit, but they have previously stated their plan to accept another 40 deportees. Opposition Members of Parliament are demanding the immediate suspension of the deportation deal until parliament ratifies it, as they say it is a requirement under Ghanaian law.
Last week, Ghana’s President John Mahama said 14 deportees of West African origin had arrived in the country following an agreement with the U.S. He later said all of them had been returned to their countries of origin, although Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa contradicted him by saying that only most of them had been returned. Mr. Vormawor’s court application contradicts both of them, stating that 11 deportees are still in detention in Ghana.
The 11 were held in a U.S. detention facility before being chained and deported in a military cargo aircraft, according to papers filed in court. The deportations are part of the U.S. government’s hard-line approach towards immigration since President Donald Trump took office in January. He has vowed to conduct record-level deportations of migrants in the country illegally.
Reuters quoted Ghana’s foreign minister on Monday as saying the decision to accept the deportees was based on “humanitarian principles and pan-African empathy.” “It should not be mistaken as an endorsement of the immigration policies of the Trump administration,” he said.
Five of the detainees, three Nigerians and two Gambians, have also sued the U.S. government, arguing that they were protected by a court order and should not have been deported.
