Advocacy groups file complaint against Ghana over Trump deportations | Migration News
Advocacy Groups File Complaint Against Ghana Over U.S. Deportations
Published June 30, 2026
Advocacy organizations have lodged a formal complaint against Ghana at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice, alleging that the country has facilitated the deportation of individuals by the United States to nations where they may face significant harm.
The complaint, submitted on Monday in Abuja, represents 27 of at least 60 individuals deported to Ghana since September under the U.S. “third-country” removal policy. This policy targets individuals whom U.S. judges have determined cannot be directly sent back to their home countries due to safety concerns.
Despite being granted protections in the U.S., many deportees reported being removed within hours or days of their arrival in Ghana and were sent to the countries from which they fled. Some have found themselves stranded in third countries without the means to continue their journeys.
In instances where U.S. courts have prohibited deportations on the grounds of potential torture or persecution, the U.S. has utilized “third countries” as alternative destinations.
“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, a senior partner at Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP. The firm filed the complaint alongside Cornell Law School’s Transnational Disputes Clinic and the Global Strategic Litigation Council, a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The court in Abuja serves as the highest judicial authority for ECOWAS, which comprises 12 member states. The complaint asserts that Ghana is violating both domestic and regional laws by facilitating deportations to unsafe countries.
Though Ghana has confirmed its agreement with the U.S. pertains to West African nationals, it has not disclosed specific details about the agreement’s terms. Shortly after the deal’s initiation, the U.S. lifted visa restrictions that had previously been imposed on Ghana.
The advocacy groups aim not only to compel Ghana to disclose the terms of its agreement with the Trump administration but also to prevent the nation from accepting future deportees under this arrangement.
Earlier in June, a similar complaint was filed with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, seeking to halt U.S. deportations to Equatorial Guinea, another nation serving as a transit point for African deportees. That case involved 14 deportees, some of whom remain in Equatorial Guinea facing conditions described as “arbitrary and indefinite detention.”
In the complaint regarding Ghana, the advocacy groups stated that none of the 27 deportees are still in the country, many having sought refuge in their home nations or in third countries, where they now exist in a state of uncertainty.
Beatrice Njeri, a litigator for the Global Strategic Litigation Council who is representing the deportees, indicated that the goal of the lawsuit is to deter other ECOWAS member states from entering into similar agreements with the Trump administration. The group is also pursuing at least $100,000 in compensation for each deportee, along with additional reparations.