This information, which was disclosed to The Associated Press on Wednesday, contradicts the information relayed by Ghanaian authorities, which claimed that the deportees have been sent back to their home countries.
Ghana, much like Eswatini, announced a couple of weeks ago that it would be taking in deported migrants from the U.S.
The plan, which was immediately controversial, saw Ghana receiving 14 U.S. immigrants, 11 of whom spoke anonymously to AP on the phone, with descriptions of their ordeal since landing in Ghana.
A Gambian native who was sent back to his home country, and 2 Nigerians, constitute the remainder of the group, the only three believed to have made it out of Ghana’s detention.
As seen on ABC, the deportees’ claim that they are still being held in Ghana runs contrary to Felix Kwakye Ofosu, the presidential spokesperson for Ghana, who told AP on Tuesday that all 14 deportees had been taken back to their countries of origin.
Except for one Gambian, the 14 deportees were previously declared to be Nigerian by the Ghanaian government.
The deportees who spoke to AP narrated that U.S. officials failed to rationalize their deportation.
Some of the deportees narrated their detention in U.S custody for up to seven months to a year, while some explained that they had already won their immigration cases.
Their court documents were not independently verifiable by the AP.
They further detailed a rigorous deportation process, during which they were transported to Ghana, restrained in handcuffs and straitjackets.
“Some of us are getting sick and have malaria due to bad water and bad food,” one of the deportees, a Nigerian who had spent 12 years in the United States, described their conditions at the military camp where they claimed to be detained, saying,
“They said nothing. Nobody said anything about why they were deporting me or where they were sending me,” said the Togolese among them, 28.
Meredyth Yoon, the litigation director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice and an attorney for four of the deportees still in Ghana, noted that her clients’ safety is in jeopardy.
“They are afraid that the reason the Ghanaian government is insisting that they are not in the country is because they are afraid something will happen to them,” said Yoon.
Trump’s third country deportation plan
Under a controversial deportation policy enacted by Donald Trump’s administration, migrants may be sent to “third-party countries” that they have no connection to, in addition to their home countries.
Due process and safety concerns are raised by the plan, which gives U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the authority to deport people with as little as six hours’ notice.
Human rights professionals worry that vulnerable individuals may face persecution and suffering when they are transported to other countries.
A number of African nations have already joined the scheme, such as Eswatini and Rwanda, which just signed a deal to accept up to 250 migrants.
Ghana’s choice to take in American deportees coincides with global criticism of other African nations siding with Donald Trump’s plan.
