ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — The group of 14 African immigrants deported to Ghana by the U.S. have been returned to their residence international locations, Ghanaian authorities reiterated on Tuesday, pushing again on claims from attorneys for the deportees who say they’re nonetheless held within the West African nation.
Ghana’s Minister for Authorities Communications and Presidential Spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu reiterated the declare in an interview with the Related Press, stating that the Gambian particular person had already flown residence whereas the remaining 13, all Nigerians, have been despatched residence on a bus.
Legal professionals for 4 of the Nigerian immigrants contradicted the official’s declare, saying in courtroom filings on Monday and in interviews with AP that the 4 deportees have been nonetheless being held in a facility in Ghana.
The Ghanaian minister denied information of such a facility. “None of them are staying on this nation. No person is being held in any camp and no person’s proper has been abused,” Ofosu mentioned of the deportees in a cellphone interview.
The AP couldn’t independently confirm the present location of the deportees. Nonetheless, a lawyer for the Gambian particular person, from a unique regulation agency, confirmed their shopper was in Gambia.
Nigerian and Gambian authorities officers advised AP they have been neither notified in regards to the deportations nor concerned within the course of.
US decide gained’t intervene within the deportations
In the meantime, A U.S. decide mentioned that she was powerless to cease the return of 4 males in Ghana’s custody to international locations the place U.S. immigration judges decided they confronted torture or persecution, declining to intervene in a victory for the Trump administration.
U.S. District Decide Tanya Chutkan mentioned that the administration seemed to be circumventing the U.N. Conference In opposition to Torture by sending the West Africans to Ghana, however that her “arms are tied.”
Chutkan wrote that she was “alarmed and dismayed by the circumstances beneath which these removals are being carried out, particularly in gentle of the federal government’s cavalier acceptance of Plaintiffs’ final switch to international locations the place they face torture and persecution.”
The ruling Monday evening in federal courtroom in Washington clears the way in which for 14 West Africans to be despatched to their residence international locations from Ghana, together with the 4 coated by the ruling. They look like destined for Nigeria and Gambia, regardless of U.S. immigration judges discovering they’ve purpose to concern persecution or torture.
Chutkan mentioned it was the most recent instance of the Trump administration evading prohibitions on deportations by sending folks exterior the nation anyway and claiming that U.S. judges had no energy to organize them again.
The decide distinguished it from the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration wrongly despatched to a jail in his native El Salvador. Within the Africa case, not like in Abrego Garcia, she wrote, the administration may legally ship them to Ghana.
Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined the lawsuit, mentioned in a press release: “We’re clearly upset by the ruling however there’s no purpose why the administration ought to require a courtroom to inform them to obey the legal guidelines prohibiting the switch of people to international locations the place it’s possible they are going to be tortured and persecuted.”
The U.S. Division of Homeland Safety didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The administration, confronted with choices by immigration judges that folks can’t be despatched again to their residence international locations, has more and more been attempting to ship them to 3rd international locations with which the administration has created agreements to take deportees.
Ghana has joined Eswatini, Rwanda and South Sudan as African international locations which have obtained migrants from third international locations who have been deported from the U.S.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of a few of the migrants mentioned they have been held in “straitjackets” for 16 hours on a flight to Ghana and detained for days in “squalid situations” after they arrived there. It mentioned Ghana was doing the Trump administration’s “soiled work.”
Ghanaian Overseas Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa pushed again on criticism that the choice was an endorsement of U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies. Ablakwa mentioned Monday that Ghana didn’t obtain any monetary compensation from the U.S. over the deportation.
“We simply couldn’t proceed to take the struggling of our fellow West Africans,” the minister mentioned. “For now, the strict understanding that we’ve got with the Individuals is that we’re solely going to take West Africans.”
Nigeria’s authorities mentioned that it wasn’t briefed about its nationals being despatched to Ghana and that beforehand it had obtained Nigerians deported immediately from the U.S.
“We now have not rejected Nigerians deported to Nigeria. What we’ve got solely rejected is deportation of different nationals into Nigeria,” mentioned Kimebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesperson for Nigeria’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs.
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Riccardi reported from Colorado and Asadu from Dakar, Senegal. Related Press author Abdoulie John in Banjul, Gambia, contributed.
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