ACCRA, Ghana — At least six of the 11 West Africans deported to Ghana as part of a United States crackdown on immigration have been transferred to Togo, their lawyers have said. The group was in the process of suing Ghana’s government to prevent their further deportation due to safety concerns.
Lead lawyer Oliver Barker-Vormawor confirmed the development, noting that only three of those sent to Togo were Togolese nationals.
“We can confirm that six were sent to Togo, the others have been sent to countries which I can’t disclose at this point,” he told the BBC. Neither Togo nor Ghana has commented on the matter, and the nationalities of the other deportees have not been disclosed.
The deportees’ legal team has since withdrawn their initial case against the Ghanaian government, as the re-deportations have made it impossible for authorities to bring the individuals before the court.
However, a separate case arguing that their rights were violated is still being pursued. The lawyers had previously contended that the group had not broken any Ghanaian law and that their detention in a military camp was therefore illegal.
These deportations are part of a broader agreement between Ghana and the US. The deal, announced by Ghana’s President John Mahama, was justified on the grounds that there is free movement of people within West Africa.
The migrants, who are nationals of countries including Nigeria, Togo, Liberia, and The Gambia, were held in a US detention facility before being flown to Ghana in shackles on a US military plane.
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Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, confirmed the country received no financial compensation for the agreement and that an additional 40 deportees are expected to arrive in the coming days.
The arrangement has drawn criticism from opposition MPs, who have called for its immediate suspension until it is legally ratified. They are demanding full transparency and accountability from the government regarding the terms of the deal.
The deportations are part of a hard-line approach to immigration by the US government, which has vowed to conduct record-level expulsions of undocumented migrants, in some cases to countries where the individuals have no known ties.
