11 migrants deported by US to Ghana were sent home despite safety concerns, their lawyer says

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Eleven West African nationals deported by the U.S. to Ghana were sent to their home countries over the weekend despite safety concerns, their lawyer told a court in Ghana on Tuesday.

The U.S. had deported a total of 14 West African immigrants to Ghana under controversial circumstances. Although Ghanaian authorities earlier said they had all been sent home, the deportees and their lawyers later told The Associated Press that 11 of them were still at a military facility in Ghana.

The 11 deportees sued the Ghanaian government last week, seeking their release. Eight of them had told the local court that they had legal protections from being deported to their home countries “due to the risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment.”

“We have to inform the court that the persons whose human rights we are seeking to enforce were all deported over the weekend,” their lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawo, told the court Tuesday at a virtual hearing, adding that the suit had become irrelevant.

“This is precisely the injury we were trying to prevent,” he said of the safety concerns of the deportees.

The 11 were four Nigerians, three Togolese, two Malians and one each from Gambia and Liberia, according to court documents seen by the AP.

Barker-Vormawo told the AP the migrants were not allowed to access their lawyer before their deportation, adding that the government hurriedly deported the migrants to “circumvent” the court case they had filed.

Barker-Vormawo said that some of the deportees have confirmed arriving in their home countries but have gone into hiding for safety reasons.

The Trump administration’s deportation program has faced widespread criticism from human rights experts who cite international protections for asylum-seekers and question whether immigrants will be appropriately screened before being deported.

The administration has been seeking ways to deter immigrants from entering the U.S. illegally and remove those who already have done so, especially those accused of crimes and including those who cannot easily be deported to their home countries.

Faced with court decisions that migrants can’t be sent back to their home countries, the Trump administration has increasingly been trying to send them to third countries under agreements with those governments.

Ghana has joined Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African countries that have received migrants from third countries who were deported from the U.S.