West African deportees sue Ghana over US 'third-country' expulsions
via Punch Nigeria2 min read
Lawyers have filed a lawsuit against Ghana at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja on behalf of deportees sent to the country under the United States' third-country deportation policies. The legal team, comprising Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP, Cornell Law School Transnational Disputes Clinic, and the Global Strategic Litigation Council, stated that the suit was filed on Monday. The lawsuit alleges that Ghana is violating domestic and regional law by "facilitating removals to unsafe countries." Since September, at least 60 people have been deported to Ghana, with 27 represented in the lawsuit. These individuals had sought and, in most cases, obtained asylum or other legal protections in the United States. The US policy involves sending deportees to "third countries" like Ghana when Washington is prohibited from sending them directly to their home countries due to concerns about torture or persecution. Ghana has subsequently sent these individuals to their home countries or, in some instances, to neighboring Togo without documents. The lawyers noted that none of the 27 deportees in the lawsuit remain in Ghana, with many now in hiding in their home countries or in limbo in other third countries. The lawsuit follows a similar one filed in June at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights concerning US deportations to Equatorial Guinea.
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This summary was AI-generated from a story originally published by Punch Nigeria.
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