A group of West Africans deported from the United States to Ghana say they endured harsh treatment during the journey, including being strapped in “straitjackets” for 16 hours while shackled and fed only bread and water. The claims were laid out in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Washington on behalf of five of the migrants.
According to the complaint, the deportees were roused in the middle of the night on September 5, placed on a U.S. military cargo plane, and kept in the dark about their destination until hours into the flight.
The migrants, none of whom are Ghanaian, have since been detained at Dema Camp in Ghana, which they describe as an open-air facility with tents for shelter, little access to running water, and heavy military presence. The lawsuit says the conditions are “abysmal and deplorable.”
The complaint also highlights that the U.S. is attempting to send the migrants to countries considered unsafe by immigration judges, raising concerns about the Trump administration’s broader practice of transferring deportees to third countries such as El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, and several African states.
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“Defendants have enlisted the government of Ghana to do their dirty work,” the lawsuit states. “Despite the minimal, pass-through involvement of the Ghanaian government, Defendants’ objective is clear: deport individuals who have been granted fear-based relief from being sent to their countries of origin to those countries anyway, in contravention to the rulings of U.S. immigration judges and U.S. immigration law.”
Lawyers for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, who filed the suit, are asking the court to immediately halt deportations to countries where migrants face threats to their safety.
The legal action came just a day after Ghana’s president confirmed that 14 deportees had arrived in the country. Ghana joins Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African nations that have received deportees from third countries under the controversial U.S. approach.
President Donald Trump has defended his immigration crackdown by labeling deported migrants as criminals or “aliens” from nations with visa overstays. Human rights groups, however, argue that his administration is pressuring governments in regions where U.S. trade, migration and aid policies carry the most weight.
Of the 14 deportees sent to Ghana, none were originally from the country. The five plaintiffs identified in the case, three Nigerians and two Gambians, say they never named Ghana as a possible destination for removal, AP reported.
The lawsuit warns that four of them are at risk of being sent to their home countries “within hours,” despite credible fears for their safety. One of the five has already been deported to The Gambia and is now in hiding.
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All 14 had been taken from their cells at an ICE detention center in Alexandria, Louisiana, before being flown out, according to the complaint.
