Another group of West Africans has been deported from the United States to Ghana, including at least one person who had legal protections against removal, according to a lawyer involved in the case who spoke to AFP on Saturday.
Donald Trump has expanded a sweeping immigration enforcement drive since returning to office, which has included deporting migrants who, under previous administrations, would likely have been allowed to remain in the country.
His administration has also advanced so-called “third country” arrangements, under which the United States can send deportees to nations where they have no prior ties.
Ghana has, since last year, been receiving deportees from across West Africa on a temporary basis before transferring them onward to their countries of origin.
Some of those sent include individuals who had previously been granted protection by US immigration courts on the grounds that they could face persecution if returned home.
In some past cases, Ghana has also sent deportees onward to neighbouring Togo without proper documentation.
The exact number of people in the latest transfer remains unclear. However, US-based attorney Meredyth Yoon, who is linked to one of the cases, said the group arrived on Thursday.
Ghana’s immigration authorities did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Yoon said her client, a man from Guinea, had been included in the deportation despite holding legal protection known as “withholding of removal”, which is a lower form of protection than asylum but has typically blocked enforced return to a country of origin.
The lawyer explained that the US government argues it is not prohibited from transferring individuals with “withholding of removal” or similar protections to a third country, even if it cannot send them directly back to their home nations.
Ghana, however, is not bound by US immigration rulings and has in some instances forwarded deportees to their countries of origin.
Last year, this reportedly included a bisexual Gambian man who went into hiding after being returned to a country where same-sex relations are criminalised, according to US court filings.
There are growing concerns about the fate of those in the latest group. Yoon warned that “they could all be deported back to their countries as soon as tomorrow”.
This latest transfer follows earlier arrivals in Ghana, including at least 42 people last year, according to figures previously compiled by a Ghanaian rights group. Neither Washington nor Accra has publicly disclosed the total number involved in these transfers.
Earlier deportees were reportedly held at a secured military facility outside Accra under armed guard before being moved on. Some were later sent to Togo, where they remain without legal documentation.
Donald Trump has previously said his immigration agenda aims at delivering “the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America”.
Alongside expanded third-country removals, his administration has also reduced asylum pathways and scaled back refugee admissions.
