US deportees sue Ghana over 'illegal' detention

Eleven people deported from the United States have filed a lawsuit in Ghana, alleging that their detention after arrival violated Ghanaian law. Their lawyer, Oliver-Barker Vormawor, said the group had not violated any Ghanaian law and that their detention in a military camp was therefore illegal. He urged the government to bring the group to court and justify why they were being held against their will.

Court filings reviewed by the defendant indicate that the 11 individuals remain in detention in Ghana. Vormawor's application contends that the detainees were kept in a foreign detention context before being transferred to a Ghanaian facility, and emphasizes that they were not charged with any crime or given due process in the Ghanaian system. The papers filed in court describe the transfer from the United States, where the detainees had been held, and their subsequent deportation on a military cargo aircraft while shackled, portraying the treatment as unlawful under Ghanaian law.

A spokesman for the Ghanaian government did not immediately comment on the suit. Officials have signaled earlier that the country plans to accept additional deportees; government channels have indicated a willingness to process another 40 people under the bilateral arrangement with the United States. Still, the government has not provided a formal response to the ongoing litigation or to questions about the legality and conditions surrounding the current deportations.

The dispute has become entangled in domestic political debate. Opposition MPs have called for the immediate suspension of the deportation deal until parliament ratifies it, arguing that parliamentary approval is required under Ghanaian law for such arrangements. In a separate string of remarks, President John Mahama had stated that 14 deportees of West African origin had arrived in the country after an agreement with the United States. He later said that all of them had been returned to their countries of origin, though Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa contradicted him by saying that only most of them had been returned. Vormawor’s court filing effectively challenges both accounts by stating that 11 deportees remain in detention in Ghana.

The 11 detainees were originally held in a U.S. detention facility before being shackled and deported on a military cargo aircraft, according to documents filed with the court. The details underscore concerns about the treatment of individuals during cross-border removals and the adequacy of oversight in the post-deportation phase.

Separately, five of the detainees—three Nigerians and two Gambians—have also sued the United States government, arguing that they were protected by a court order and should not have been deported. Those plaintiffs contend that a U.S. court had issued protections or injunctions that should have prevented removal, raising questions about intergovernmental coordination and the scope of judicial orders in immigration matters.

The case unfolds as U.S. immigration policy under the Trump administration has pursued a hard-line approach, including calls for higher removal numbers of people living in the United States unlawfully. Ghana’s foreign minister has said that the decision to accept deportees was grounded in humanitarian principle and pan-African empathy, and he stressed that the move should not be construed as an endorsement of U.S. immigration policies. The evolving legal challenges and political debate in Ghana illustrate how deportation partnerships can become flashpoints for questions of legal process, sovereignty, and regional relations while the surrounding cases continue to develop.