West Africans deported to Ghana forcibly returned home despite US protection orders
Sep 15, 2025·Location: Accra, Ghana

The government of Ghana announced that 14 West Africans (13 Nigerians and 1 Gambian) deported from the US had been sent on to their home countries, prompting a lawsuit from US lawyers alleging the deportations violated immigration protections and that Ghana was used as a third country to bypass US law. Reuters later found that more than 30 third-country nationals were deported to Ghana, including at least 22 who had court-ordered protection against removal to their home countries, with lawyers saying none had a chance to raise legal objections before being sent back. One deportee, Rabbiatu Kuyateh, who had been granted protection from deportation to Sierra Leone over fears of torture tied to her father's political ties, was filmed being forcibly dragged onto a van in Ghana before being returned to Sierra Leone. Reuters also reported that Equatorial Guinea sent home at least three US deportees who had similar US protections, a previously unreported practice now the subject of complaints to the UN human rights office.
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