{"id":429111,"date":"2025-09-16T14:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429111\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T14:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:43:11","slug":"ghanaian-authorities-insist-african-immigrants-deported-by-us-have-returned-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429111\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaian authorities insist African immigrants deported by US have returned home"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) \u2014 The group of 14 African immigrants<\/a> deported to Ghana by the U.S. have been returned to their home countries, Ghanaian authorities reiterated on Tuesday, pushing back on claims from lawyers for the deportees who say they are still held in the West African country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s Minister for Government Communications and Presidential Spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu reiterated the claim in an interview with the Associated Press, stating that the Gambian individual had already flown home while the remaining 13, all Nigerians, were sent home on a bus.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for four of the Nigerian immigrants contradicted the official\u2019s claim, saying in court filings on Monday and in interviews with AP that the four deportees were still being held in a facility in Ghana.<\/p>\n

The Ghanaian minister denied knowledge of such a facility. \u201cNone of them are staying in this country. Nobody is being held in any camp and nobody\u2019s right has been abused,\u201d Ofosu said of the deportees in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

The AP could not independently verify the current location of the deportees. However, a lawyer for the Gambian individual, from a different law firm, confirmed their client was in Gambia.<\/p>\n

Nigerian and Gambian government officials told AP they were neither notified about the deportations nor involved in the process.<\/p>\n

US judge won\u2019t intervene in the deportations<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, A U.S. judge said that she was powerless to stop the return of four men in Ghana\u2019s custody to countries where U.S. immigration judges determined they faced torture or persecution, declining to intervene in a victory for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said that the administration appeared to be circumventing the U.N. Convention Against Torture by sending the West Africans to Ghana, but that her \u201chands are tied.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chutkan wrote that she was \u201calarmed and dismayed by the circumstances under which these removals are being carried out, especially in light of the government\u2019s cavalier acceptance of Plaintiffs\u2019 ultimate transfer to countries where they face torture and persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling Monday night in federal court in Washington clears the way for 14 West Africans to be sent to their home countries from Ghana, including the four covered by the ruling. They appear to be destined for Nigeria and Gambia, despite U.S. immigration judges finding they have reason to fear persecution or torture.<\/p>\n

Chutkan said it was the latest example<\/a> of the Trump administration evading prohibitions on deportations by sending people outside the country anyway and claiming that U.S. judges had no power to order them back.<\/p>\n

The judge distinguished it from the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia<\/a>, who the administration wrongly sent to a prison in his native El Salvador. In the Africa case, unlike in Abrego Garcia, she wrote, the administration could legally send them to Ghana. <\/p>\n

Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined the lawsuit, said in a statement: \u201cWe are obviously disappointed by the ruling but there\u2019s no reason why the administration should require a court to tell them to obey the laws prohibiting the transfer of individuals to countries where it\u2019s likely they will be tortured and persecuted.\u201d <\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The administration, faced with decisions by immigration judges that people can\u2019t be sent back to their home countries, has increasingly been trying to send them to third countries<\/a> with which the administration has created agreements to take deportees. <\/p>\n

Ghana has joined Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African countries that have received migrants from third countries who were deported from the U.S. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit filed on behalf of some of the migrants said they were held in \u201cstraitjackets\u201d for 16 hours on a flight to Ghana and detained for days in \u201csqualid conditions\u201d after they arrived there. It said Ghana was doing the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cdirty work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa pushed back on criticism that the decision was an endorsement of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies. Ablakwa said Monday that Ghana didn\u2019t receive any financial compensation from the U.S. over the deportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just could not continue to take the suffering of our fellow West Africans,\u201d the minister said. \u201cFor now, the strict understanding that we have with the Americans is that we are only going to take West Africans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigeria\u2019s government said that it wasn\u2019t briefed about its nationals being sent to Ghana and that previously it had received Nigerians deported directly from the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not rejected Nigerians deported to Nigeria. What we have only rejected is deportation of other nationals into Nigeria,\u201d said Kimebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesperson for Nigeria\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Riccardi reported from Colorado and Asadu from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Abdoulie John in Banjul, Gambia, contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACCRA, Ghana (AP) \u2014 The group of 14 African immigrants deported to Ghana by the U.S. have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[2740,32,145698,4179,19912,40,145699,145701,3007,145700,285,145697,146297,71958,49,5213,978,659,10673,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-429111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-felix-kwakye-ofosu","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-ghana","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-kilmar-abrego-garcia","15":"tag-lee-gelernt","16":"tag-nigeria","17":"tag-nigeria-government","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-samuel-okudzeto-ablakwa","20":"tag-tanya-chutkan","21":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-government","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-washington-news","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115214509975863409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}