Advocacy groups file complaint against Ghana over Trump deportations

The deportees were sent to Ghana, then to their home countries, despite earlier rulings by US judges that it was unsafe.Advocacy groups have filed a complaint against Ghana at West Africa’s top human rights court, accusing the country of helping the United States deport people to nations where they could face serious harm.The complaint, filed Monday at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice in Abuja, was brought on behalf of 27 of at least 60 deportees sent to Ghana since September under Washington’s “third-country” removal policy, which targets people US judges have ruled cannot be sent directly to their home countries.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Donald Trump nominates ex-state trooper Lance Schroyer as ICE directorlist 2 of 4‘If I am to die, let it be here’: Malawians fleeing unrest in South Africalist 3 of 4Migrants in South Africa fear violence ahead of June 30 deadlinelist 4 of 4Fears for people deported from US to Venezuela hours before earthquakes hitend of listThe complaint said the deportees told authorities ‌they had been granted protections in the US, but most of them were removed within hours or days of their arrival in Ghana to the countries they had escaped. Some were stranded in third countries with no means to continue their journeys.In cases where Washington is barred from sending people to their home countries – after US judges found they would likely face torture or persecution, for example – it has sent deportees to “third countries”.“No person should be returned to a place where they face persecution, torture or serious threats to their dignity and safety,” said Oliver Barker-Vormawor, senior partner at Ghanaian law firm Merton & Everett LLP.The firm filed the lawsuit alongside Cornell Law School’s Transnational Disputes Clinic and the Global Strategic Litigation Council, a coalition of NGOs.The court is the top judicial body for ECOWAS, a regional bloc of 12 countries.Deportees ‘hiding in their home countries’ or in ‘limbo’The complaint alleges Ghana is violating domestic and regional law by “facilitating removals to unsafe countries”, a statement from the advocacy groups said.