An international coalition of human rights lawyers and advocates has filed a lawsuit against Ghana, alleging the government is violating the rights of deportees by sending them back to their home countries from which they had fled. The legal action targets a deal Ghana signed with the Trump administration to accept deportees who are not its own citizens.
The lawsuit was lodged at the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States by the Global Strategic Litigation Council, a network of lawyers and advocates. This case marks the first legal challenge brought under a 1979 regional treaty that guarantees free movement across West Africa.
According to the coalition, the case represents 27 individuals among at least 60 people the U.S. has deported to Ghana since September 2025 as part of the governmental agreement. Ghana reportedly agreed to receive these deportees, detain them, and arrange their onward removal, even though most had obtained protection orders from U.S. judges against deportation to their native countries.
The coalition stated that most of the 27 individuals were flown from Ghana to their home countries within hours or days of arrival, despite informing Ghanaian authorities about their U.S. protections. Some individuals recounted being shackled during their flights from the U.S. Upon arrival in Ghana, they alleged being held under armed guard in military camps, hotels, and airport holding cells, often in poor conditions.
Ghana is accused by the coalition of violating the principle of non-refoulement, an international legal standard that prohibits countries from sending individuals to places where they risk persecution or torture.
The lawsuit seeks an order from the regional court to halt further transfers, compel Ghana to disclose the terms of the deportation agreement, award damages, and prevent the country from entering into similar arrangements in the future.
This development follows a similar case filed earlier this month against Equatorial Guinea, another African nation with a deportation deal with the U.S. In that instance, rights lawyers accused the country of forcing deportees from the U.S. back to their home countries, thereby violating their rights before Africa’s highest human rights body.
Under these often undisclosed agreements, the Trump administration has reportedly deported thousands of individuals to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own as part of its immigration enforcement strategy. Immigration lawyers suggest that the administration has employed third-country deportations as a legal means to indirectly return asylum seekers to their home nations.
Medical evaluations submitted as part of the lawsuit indicated signs of post-traumatic stress and severe depression in several of the 27 individuals involved in the Ghanaian case.