Six West Africans deported from US to Ghana sent to Togo despite legal fight

At least six of the 11 West Africans deported to Ghana as part of the US 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, amid concerns over their safety.

“We can confirm that six were sent to Togo, the others have been sent to countries which I can’t disclose at this point,” lead lawyer Oliver Barker-Vormawor told the BBC.

Only three of those sent to Togo are Togolese. The nationalities of the others has not been disclosed.

Neither Togo nor Ghana has commented.

The deportees’ lawyers have subsequently withdrawn their case against the Ghana government, as it has been overtaken by events. However, they are still pursuing a separate case arguing that their rights have been violated.

The lawyers said the deportations had made it impossible for the authorities to bring them before the court or justify their detention.

Last week Mr Barker-Vormawor told the BBC that he wanted the government to produce the group in court and justify why they were being held against their will, adding that they had not violated any Ghanaian law, and their detention in a military camp was therefore illegal.

On Tuesday, he expressed disappointment with Ghana’s justice system, noting that the court could have intervened to prevent their deportation.

The deportees, who include nationals of Nigeria, Togo, Liberia and The Gambia, were previously held in a US detention facility before being deported on a US military plane in shackles to Ghana under an agreement with the Ghanaian government.

The deal for Ghana to take in nationals from various West African countries was announced by President John Mahama two weeks ago, saying he had been approached by the US to accept the deportees, and that it was because there was free movement of people in West Africa.

Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa later said the country was not receiving any financial compensation in return.

He said that additional 40 deportees were expected to arrive in Ghana in the coming days.

Opposition MPs have called for the immediate suspension of the US-Ghana agreement until it is ratified by law. They are also demanding full transparency and accountability regarding the arrangement.

The deportations are part of the US government’s hard-line approach towards immigration since President Donald Trump took office in January.

He has vowed to conduct record-level deportations of migrants in the country illegally. In some cases, people are expelled to countries where they have no ties.