Eleven West African nationals deported by the U.S. to Ghana were sent to their home countries over the weekend despite safety concerns, their lawyer told a court in Ghana on Tuesday.
The U.S. had deported a total of 14 West African immigrants to Ghana under controversial circumstances. Although Ghanaian authorities earlier said they have all been sent home, the deportees and their lawyers later told The Associated Press that 11 of them were still at a military facility in Ghana.
The 11 deportees sued the Ghanaian government last week, seeking their release. Eight of them had told the local court that they had legal protections from being deported to their home countries “due to the risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment.”
“We have to inform the court that the persons whose human rights we are seeking to enforce were all deported over the weekend,” their lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawo, told the court Tuesday at a virtual hearing, adding that the suit had become irrelevant.
“This is precisely the injury we were trying to prevent,” he said of the safety concerns of the deportees.
