Ghana is standing firm after receiving 14 migrants deported by the United States, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from human rights groups and lawyers who say the transfers breach international law. The decision puts Ghana among a small but growing list of African nations cooperating with Washington’s controversial third-country deportation policy, pushed during Donald Trump’s presidency.
Authorities in Accra confirmed on Monday that the group—13 Nigerians and one Gambian—landed in Ghana last week before continuing on to their home countries. None of the deportees is Ghanaian. Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the decision was based “purely on humanitarian principle” and regional solidarity. “We just could not continue to take the suffering of our fellow West Africans,” he explained, noting that other countries had earlier refused to accept the migrants.
Government officials arranged for the Nigerians to return home by bus, a trip of about eight hours, while the Gambian deportee was also put on the road back to his homeland. President John Mahama backed the move, stressing Ghana’s duty to help.
But the deportees, through a lawsuit filed in the US, paint a grim picture. They allege that on September 5 they were woken up in the middle of the night, placed on a US military cargo plane, and flown for hours without being told where they were headed. Lawyers claim some had legal protections against deportation due to risks of torture in their countries. The migrants also say they were strapped in straitjackets for 16 hours and held in “deplorable” conditions when they arrived in Ghana.
Ghanaian officials strongly deny responsibility for those claims, insisting the treatment happened before the migrants reached Accra. Still, the wider policy itself is under growing fire. The US has struck similar deals in Latin America and Africa—countries like Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini have already accepted deportees, while others like Uganda and Paraguay have signed on.
Critics say the practice undermines international law. Maureen A. Sweeney, a law professor at the University of Maryland, condemned the deportations as showing “extreme indifference” to human rights and the obligations the US has toward vulnerable migrants. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry expressed surprise that its citizens were routed through Ghana, clarifying that it had only rejected the deportation of non-Nigerians.
For now, Ghana stands by its decision, but lawyers for the deportees argue the case highlights the deep legal and ethical dilemmas of Washington’s third-country deportation programme—and the difficult balance African nations must strike between humanitarian duty and diplomatic pressure.
