US Deportations to Ghana Spark Legal and Human Rights Concerns

The United States has deported a group of African migrants to Ghana, despite most of them having no ties to the country.

According to Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, 13 Nigerians and one Gambian national were sent to Ghana in recent weeks. He said Accra accepted them only on a temporary humanitarian basis and out of a spirit of West African solidarity. All 14 migrants have since been returned to their home countries.

Similar arrangements have reportedly taken place in Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan, while Uganda has also signed a deal with Washington to accept deported migrants.

Human rights groups have criticised the US policy, arguing that it violates international law by placing deported individuals at risk of persecution or harm upon return. Lawyers say some migrants were forcibly removed despite having secured court orders protecting them from deportation.

The large-scale expulsions form part of a wider crackdown on immigration under President Donald Trump’s administration, raising renewed concerns among experts over possible breaches of human rights.