Ghana faces ECOWAS court case over deportees sent on from US

Accra,UPDATED: Jun 30, 2026 22:20 IST

An international coalition of human rights lawyers and advocates has filed a case against Ghana, accusing it of sending deportees from the United States back to the countries they had fled, in violation of their rights. The case is the latest legal challenge over an African country’s agreement with the Trump administration to accept deportees who are not its own citizens.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday before the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States. The coalition, which includes the Global Strategic Litigation Council, said Ghana agreed to receive deportees from the US, hold them and arrange their onward removal, even though most of them had received protection orders from US judges against being sent back to their home countries.

The case represents 27 people out of at least 60 whom the US has deported to Ghana since September 2025 under an agreement between the two governments, according to the coalition’s statement. It said most of the 27 were flown from Ghana to their home countries within hours or days of arrival, despite telling Ghanaian authorities about their US protections.

Some of those involved said they were shackled during the flight from the US. After reaching Ghana, they said they were kept under armed guard in military camps, hotels and airport holding cells, often in poor conditions. Medical evaluations cited in the lawsuit found signs of post-traumatic stress and severe depression in several of the 27 people.

The coalition said Ghana had violated the principle of non-refoulement, which bars countries from sending people to places where they face persecution or torture. It has asked the regional court to stop further transfers, direct Ghana to release the terms of the deal, award damages and prevent the country from entering into similar agreements in future.

A spokesperson for Ghana’s government did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ghana is one of at least nine African countries to have entered into third-country deportation deals with the US. Advocates say the Trump administration has, under often secret agreements, deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own, while immigration lawyers argue that such transfers are used to indirectly send asylum seekers back to their home countries. Earlier this month, rights lawyers filed a similar case against Equatorial Guinea before Africa’s top human rights body.

The lawsuit is also significant because it is the first case brought under a 1979 regional treaty that guarantees free movement across West Africa, while challenging Ghana’s role in receiving deportees from the US and sending them onwards despite protections granted by American courts.

With PTI Inputs

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