By Erestinah Jane | June 30, 2026
A coalition of international and West African human rights organisations has filed a landmark case against the Government of Ghana before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, challenging the country’s alleged participation in a controversial third-country deportation arrangement with the United States.
The application, lodged at the regional court’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, seeks to hold Ghana accountable for allegedly facilitating the transfer and subsequent removal of migrants who had previously been granted legal protection from deportation by United States immigration courts.
The suit has been filed on behalf of 27 deportees by a legal team comprising Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP, the Cornell Law School Transnational Disputes Clinic and the Global Strategic Litigation Council.
According to the applicants, many of the deportees had already secured asylum, withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture through decisions issued by US immigration judges. Those legal protections, they argue, recognised that the individuals faced persecution, torture or threats to their lives if returned to their countries of origin.
The lawsuit alleges that instead of deporting the migrants directly to their home countries—which would have violated those protections—the US government transferred them to Ghana under a confidential bilateral arrangement. Lawyers contend that once the deportees arrived in Accra, Ghanaian authorities either facilitated or permitted their onward removal to the very countries from which they had fled, while others were reportedly transported to neighbouring Togo without valid travel or identity documents.
The claimants argue that this practice amounted to indirect refoulement, a principle prohibited under international refugee and human rights law, which bars states from returning individuals to places where they face persecution, torture or other serious harm, whether directly or indirectly.
Court documents further allege that the deportees endured degrading treatment throughout the process. Several claimants say they were restrained with shackles and body restraints aboard US military-operated aircraft, subjected to physical abuse during transit and held under armed guard in military facilities and airport detention centres after arriving in Ghana.
The legal team claims that at least 60 West African nationals have been transferred from the United States to Ghana since the alleged deportation arrangement began, describing the programme as an emerging model of outsourced migration enforcement.
Through the case, the applicants are seeking at least US$100,000 in compensation for each deportee for alleged violations of their fundamental human rights. They are also asking the ECOWAS Court to compel the Government of Ghana to disclose the full terms of the reported bilateral deportation agreement, which they say has never been made public.
In addition, the petitioners want the regional court to prohibit Ghana from participating in similar deportation arrangements in the future and establish legal safeguards to discourage other African countries from entering comparable agreements that could undermine international refugee protections.
The lawsuit is expected to test the extent of Ghana’s obligations under regional and international human rights treaties, including the prohibition against refoulement, while also examining whether governments can lawfully act as transit countries for migrants who have already obtained judicial protection against removal.
If successful, the case could set a significant legal precedent for migration governance across West Africa and influence how ECOWAS member states respond to future third-country deportation agreements involving external partners such as the United States.
