Published On 1/7/2026
Human rights organizations filed a complaint against Ghana before the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, yesterday, accusing it of helping the United States to deport people to countries where they may be exposed to serious harm.
The complaint was filed on behalf of 27 out of at least 60 deportees sent to Ghana since last September as part of Washington’s “third country” deportation policy, which targets people who US judges have ruled cannot be returned directly to their countries of origin.
The complaint stated that the deportees informed the authorities that they had received forms of protection in the United States, but most of them were deported within hours or days of their arrival in Ghana to the countries from which they fled, while some were stuck in other countries without a way to continue their journey.
In cases where Washington is prevented from returning people to their countries of origin, it sends them to a “third country.” Agence France-Presse reported that Ghana was returning them to their countries, or “throwing them into neighboring Togo without documents.”
The complaint alleges that Ghana is violating domestic and regional laws by “facilitating deportations to unsafe countries,” according to a statement by Ghanaian human rights organizations that filed the complaint. The organizations said that the lawsuit aims to force Ghana to disclose the terms of its agreement with the Trump administration, and to prevent it from accepting any future deportees under this arrangement.
Ghana did not reveal the details of the terms of the agreement with the United States, only confirming that it related to people from West Africa. Shortly after the agreement entered into force, Washington rolled back visa restrictions it had imposed on Ghana.
A similar lawsuit was filed last June before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to stop American deportations to Equatorial Guinea, which was also used as a transit station for African deportees. That lawsuit was filed on behalf of 14 deportees, including a number who are still detained in Equatorial Guinea in conditions that “amount to arbitrary and indefinite detention,” according to the indictment.
The organizations indicated that none of the 27 deportees remained in Ghana, adding, “Many of them are now hiding in their countries of origin or have fled to third countries, where they are waiting at a loss.”
Beatrice Njeri, a lawyer at the Global Council for Strategic Litigation who represents the deportees, told Reuters that they are seeking to discourage other members of ECOWAS from concluding similar deals with the administration of US President Donald Trump. She added that the group is also demanding compensation of no less than $100,000 for each person deported from Ghana, in addition to other compensation.
