Ghana is facing a legal battle at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice over its role in receiving migrants deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s third-country deportation policy.
Human rights lawyers filed the suit on behalf of 27 deportees, alleging that Ghana breached regional and international human rights obligations by facilitating the transfer of migrants who faced the risk of persecution, torture, or other serious harm if returned to their countries of origin.
According to the legal filings, several of the deportees had previously been granted asylum or other forms of legal protection in the United States.
However, after US courts blocked their direct deportation to their home countries, they were instead flown to Ghana under the third-country arrangement.
The lawyers further alleged that some of the migrants were later transferred to neighbouring Togo without valid identity documents, leaving them stranded and exposed to significant hardship.
The legal team claims that at least 60 people have been deported to Ghana under the policy since September.
The case, lodged before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Nigeria, seeks to hold Ghana responsible for its role in the deportation process.
Meanwhile, rights groups argue that the outcome of the case could set an important legal precedent for third-country deportation agreements across West Africa and determine whether such arrangements comply with regional and international human rights standards.
