Accra, Ghana
AP
—
The authorities of Ghana mentioned Monday that 14 West Africans deported to the nation from the US have been sent to their house international locations, locations where lawyers representing some of the boys say they face a danger of persecution or torture.
News of the West Africans’ deportation to Ghana emerged final week, sparking a lawsuit by US lawyers. They argue the transfer was an try by US authorities to evade their very own immigration legal guidelines that stop some of the boys from being returned to international locations where their well-being could be in danger.
On Monday, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Ghana’s minister for presidency communications, instructed the Associated Press that every one 14 males —13 Nigerians and one Gambian — “have since left for their home countries,” with out saying once they have been returned.
Lawyers say it’s one other case of the Trump administration deporting folks after which making an attempt to distance itself from the repercussions. The case has drawn parallels to that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador regardless of a courtroom order prohibiting it, then argued it couldn’t get him again.
The Trump administration, confronted with folks in immigration proceedings who for authorized and procedural causes can’t be sent to their house international locations, has more and more been making an attempt to ship them to third international locations with which the administration has created agreements.
Lawyers representing 5 of the West African males filed a lawsuit Friday arguing that the boys had authorized protections stopping them from being sent house over issues they’d be tortured or persecuted. The criticism, filed by lawyers for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, mentioned the boys had been granted fear-based aid from being sent to their international locations and requested the choose to instantly halt their deportations.
A federal choose Saturday asked the US government to element what it was doing to guarantee Ghana wouldn’t ship the immigrants elsewhere in violation of US courtroom orders. The administration’s agreements with so-called third international locations like Ghana are a part of a sweeping immigration crackdown searching for to deport thousands and thousands of individuals from the United States.
A Department of Justice lawyer argued that the choose listening to the case had no energy to management how one other nation treats deportees. The lawyer famous the US Supreme Court this summer ruled the administration could proceed sending immigrants to international locations they are not from, even when they hadn’t had an opportunity to increase fears of torture.
Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who’s a part of a authorized group representing the 5 males within the lawsuit, mentioned Monday that the entire scenario “reeks of a scam.”
“That the United States knew these individuals were going to be sent to grave danger despite an immigration judge order, and still refused to take any action is outrageous. It seems evident that the United States has concocted a scheme to use third countries to circumvent what the United States cannot do directly,” Gelernt mentioned.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of some of the migrants mentioned they have been held in “straitjackets” for 16 hours on a flight to Ghana and detained for days in “squalid conditions” after they arrived there.
The opposition and activists in Ghana have criticized the choice to settle for the third-country deportees. Opposition lawmakers mentioned it raises “serious constitutional, sovereignty and foreign policy concerns which cannot be overlooked.”
At a press briefing within the capital of Accra, Ghana’s overseas minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, pushed again on criticism that the choice was an endorsement of President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies. Ablakwa mentioned Ghana didn’t obtain any monetary compensation from the US over the deportation.
“We just could not continue to take the suffering of our fellow West Africans,” the minister mentioned of the rationale behind the federal government’s determination. “For now, the strict understanding that we have with the Americans is that we are only going to take West Africans,” he added.
Nigeria’s authorities mentioned it was not briefed about its nationals being sent to Ghana and that beforehand it had obtained Nigerians deported instantly from the US.
“We have not rejected Nigerians deported to Nigeria. What we have only rejected is deportation of other nationals into Nigeria,” Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesperson for the nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, instructed AP.
The authorities in Gambia didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
None of the 14 deportees have been initially from Ghana, and the 5 West Africans who filed the lawsuit didn’t have ties with the nation or designate it as a possible nation of removing, in accordance to the criticism.
Lawyers and activists have mentioned the Trump administration seems to be making such deportation requests to the nations most affected by his insurance policies on commerce, migration and help.
Ghana joined Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African international locations which have obtained migrants from third international locations who have been deported from the US, an method whose legality has been questioned by lawyers and human rights organizations.