Eleven West African migrants deported from the United States to Ghana have filed a complaint alleging unlawful detention.
President John Mahama had announced the arrival of a first batch of 14 deportees, comprising four Nigerians, a Gambian, and other West Africans, in Accra last week.
Three of the migrants have since been sent back to their home countries, with 11 remaining in Ghana.
Oliver-Barker Vormawo, counsel for the 11 deportees, said on Friday that there has been no access to the migrants since their alleged detention.
“We cannot confirm their location,” he said.
The applicants, in the lawsuit, claimed that their detention violates article 14(1) of Ghana’s 1992 constitution, which guarantees personal liberty and protection from arbitrary arrest and detention.
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They also alleged that their rights to administrative justice, due process, and non-refoulement have been undermined by the circumstances of their detention and potential deportation.
One of the Nigerians claimed, in a separate legal filing, that he had been beaten and tortured by police officers and soldiers back home, and that they had threatened to kill him if they saw him again.
On Monday, Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghanaian foreign minister, said his country had taken in the deported West Africans in an effort to save them from the suffering and rights violations that they were being subjected to in the US. A high court in Accra scheduled September 23 to hear the applications from the deportees.
