Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - West Africans deported from the United States and
routed through Ghana say they have been abandoned in Togo without documents or
legal support, raising alarms from lawyers and human rights groups.
Lawyers told AFP that the deportations form part of US
President Donald Trump’s sweeping removal programme, which has faced criticism
for its lack of transparency. The issue drew attention earlier this month after
Ghana’s President John Mahama confirmed a deal with Washington to accept some
deportees from the region.
Since then, at least eight to 10 individuals have been sent
on from Ghana to Togo. They were allegedly escorted past the Aflao border
crossing near Lomé and left on the streets without passports.
“The situation is terrible,” said Benjamin, a Nigerian
national using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals. He said he was crammed into a
hotel room with three other deportees, surviving on money sent by relatives in
the US. Benjamin, who had secured a court ruling blocking his deportation to
Nigeria on safety grounds, said he was beaten by US Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) officers after refusing to board a military plane. He was
ultimately flown to Ghana.
Another deportee, Emmanuel, a Liberian who fled his
country’s civil war in the 1990s and was granted asylum in the US, told AFP he
too was dumped in Togo. “We are in hiding right now because we have no type of
documents, ID whatsoever,” he said.
Both men, who had held green cards and are married to
American citizens, spent more than two weeks under military guard at Ghana’s
Dema Camp alongside other deportees before being driven to the border. They
said conditions there exposed them to heat, mosquitoes, and unsafe water.
According to lawyers, at least 28 people have been flown to
Ghana so far. The first group of 14 included several whose deportation had been
blocked by US immigration judges on grounds of likely persecution. In one case,
a bisexual man from Gambia was reportedly sent back immediately by Ghanaian
authorities, despite the risks posed by laws criminalising same-sex relations
in his country.
US-based attorney Meredyth Yoon described the arrangement as
a “loophole,” claiming Washington is sidestepping court protections by sending
deportees to Ghana first, where officials can then move them on to their home
countries.
The UN human rights office has urged Ghana to halt onward
deportations to nations where individuals may face torture or persecution.
The US State Department told AFP it would “pursue all
appropriate options to remove aliens who should not be in the United States.”
Ghanaian and Togolese authorities have not commented on the reports.
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