Human rights lawyers and advocacy groups brought a case against Ghana on June 30, 2026, alleging that its role in a United States third-country deportation arrangement exposed migrants to persecution, torture or other serious harm.
The complaint before the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States represents 27 people among at least 60 sent from the US to Ghana since September 2025. According to the coalition, most had orders from US judges protecting them from direct removal to their home countries.
Ghana agreed to receive deportees who were not its citizens, hold them and organize their onward transfer, the coalition said. The complaint alleges that most of the 27 were sent from Ghana to countries they had fled within hours or days, even after informing Ghanaian authorities about their US protections. None of the represented deportees remained in Ghana when the case was filed, advocacy groups said.
The claim centers on non-refoulement, the legal principle prohibiting transfers to places where a person faces persecution or torture. The coalition accuses Ghana of breaching domestic and regional obligations by facilitating removals to unsafe destinations. The Associated Press reported that the proceeding is the first brought under a 1979 regional treaty guaranteeing free movement across West Africa.
Some deportees said they were shackled on flights from the US and subsequently held under armed guard in Ghanaian military camps, hotels or airport cells, often in poor conditions. Medical assessments cited in the case identified signs of post-traumatic stress and severe depression in several people, AP reported. Advocacy groups also said some deportees were stranded in third countries, while others were hiding in their countries of origin or had fled again.
The lawsuit asks the regional court to halt additional transfers, require disclosure of Ghana’s agreement with the Trump administration, award damages and prevent similar future arrangements. Beatrice Njeri of the Global Strategic Litigation Council said the applicants were seeking at least $100,000 from Ghana for each deportee, alongside other reparations. She also said the litigation was intended to discourage other ECOWAS members from making comparable deals.
The filing was made by Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP, Cornell Law School’s Transnational Disputes Clinic and the Global Strategic Litigation Council. Ghana has confirmed that its arrangement with the US concerns West Africans but has not disclosed its terms, Al Jazeera reported. A Ghanaian government spokesperson did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.
The Ghana proceeding followed a separate case filed earlier in June concerning transfers through Equatorial Guinea. That action, submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights for 14 deportees, also alleges that people were returned toward countries they had fled. Ghana is among at least nine African states to reach third-country deportation arrangements with the US, according to AP.
