Ghanaian lawyers have filed a petition before the country's highest court seeking the suspension of a bilateral migration agreement with the US. They claim the deal contradicts international treaties to which Ghana is a signatory and that since it has not been ratified by parliament, the executive is acting outside any constitutional framework.
A new group of migrants deported from the US arrived at Kotoka International Airport in Accra on Monday morning aboard a Boeing 767-200 from Baltimore, Ghanaian lawyer Oliver Barker-Vormawor told RFI.
The lawyer said he had not received details of numbers or nationalities.
Ghanaian authorities, contacted by RFI, have yet to respond.
So far, they have only confirmed the arrival of 14 West African nationals deported from the US since 10 September – when Accra and Washington officially signed a bilateral agreement whereby Ghana agreed to take in third-country nationals expelled from the US.
Barker-Vormawor said the latest group is at least the third to have been transferred to Ghana under the deal. He claims that another group of 14 migrants also arrived in the country last month.
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Highly controversial agreement
On Monday, Barker-Vormawor filed a petition to the Supreme Court, asking it to declare the deal null and void on the basis of two legal issues.
The first concerns its lack of ratification by Parliament – a status which, according to the lawyer, means the executive is operating outside any constitutional authority.
While Ghanian authorities insist the text does not require parliamentary approval because it is not yet final, the lawyer contests that position. It is “not only wrong but also likely to undermine the constitutional framework governing the executive’s accountability in foreign affairs", he told RFI.
“What the judiciary has made clear is that whatever name you give an agreement, if it is concluded with another state, it must be presented to Parliament for ratification before taking effect.”
The second problem is that the deal contradicts international treaties to which Ghana is a signatory. Under those commitments, Ghana cannot rely on the Ecowas principle of free movement of persons in order to transfer West African nationals without due process.
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The lawyer also argues that “the first individuals transferred to Ghana were granted protection from deportation [to third-party countries] on the grounds of a well-founded risk of torture if returned to their countries of origin".
"Yet Ghana itself has signed the Convention against Torture. By sending these individuals back, Accra would be violating its international obligations.”
The lawyer’s firm filed a separate lawsuit last month against the Ghanaian government over the alleged unlawful detention of 11 migrants deported from the United States.
