West Africans sent by US to Ghana have been deported, lawyer says

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ACCRA (Reuters) -Eleven West Africans transferred from the United States to Ghana as part of an agreement with the Trump administration have been deported a second time, their lawyer said on Tuesday, despite fears some of them faced possible torture and persecution.

At least six of them are now in neighbouring Togo, the lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, told Reuters after a court hearing, adding that the whereabouts of the other five are unknown.

A Ghana government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The group included four Nigerians, three Togolese, two Malians, one Liberian and one Gambian.

Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama told reporters this month his government had agreed to take in nationals from other West African countries who were being deported from the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Last week Barker-Vormawor filed a lawsuit on behalf of 11 of the first group of 14 deportees to arrive, asking that a court in Accra block any move to send them to their home countries.

But at the hearing on Tuesday, he told the court that the group had been deported over the weekend.

“This is precisely the injury we were trying to prevent,” Barker-Vormawor said, adding that the lawsuit he’d filed was now “moot” and was being withdrawn.

Barker-Vormawor later told Reuters that “information suggests another 14 have arrived”, though he said he had not confirmed this.

Barker-Vormawor’s lawsuit had argued that at least eight of the deportees he was representing had been granted protection by U.S. immigration judges against deportation to their home countries due to risks of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment.

Mahama’s government has said the decision to take in West African deportees did not amount to an endorsement of Trump’s immigration policy and that Ghana was not getting anything in return.

(Reporting by Emmanuel Bruce; Writing by Ayen Deng Bior; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet, Aidan Lewis)