Third Deportation Flight Since September
A charter aircraft touched down quietly at Kotoka International Airport on 6 November, delivering nineteen West African nationals removed from the United States. The flight marked the third known expulsion since a bilateral migration accord between Accra and Washington surfaced in September, signalling a pattern that alarms human-rights lawyers and community advocates.
The agreement’s details have not been released, yet its impact is already visible: small, unheralded groups arrive under escort, carrying only the memories of months spent in American detention cells. Within hours they find themselves on Ghanaian soil, awaiting a fate they cannot predict.
Inside the Holding Area
In the lobby of an unmarked hotel north of Accra, eight migrants watched in silence as uniformed Ghana Immigration Service agents dragged a woman in her fifties across the tiled floor by her legs. Moments later she was bundled into a van headed for the airport and a flight to Sierra Leone—the country she once fled to seek refuge in the United States.
Her companions described the scene with a mix of outrage and resignation. They, too, lack passports or national identity cards, having relinquished them during their American detention. Each spent months in immigration facilities before being placed on the November flight without notice of their final destination.
Silent Transfers Already Under Way
The following day, 7 November, ten Nigerian nationals were removed from the same hotel and flown to Lagos, according to the remaining detainees. No official statement followed, and the group has had no contact with those transferred. Their absence only heightens the anxiety of the eight migrants still under guard.
Soldiers patrol the hotel perimeter day and night, restricting movement even within the compound. Food, medicine and telephone access arrive at the discretion of the security detail, leaving the detainees dependent on sporadic goodwill and the occasional visit from volunteer lawyers.
Paper Shields and Legal Lines
Every migrant still in Accra clings to a single sheet of paper: a decision by a United States immigration judge granting protection from removal under the Convention Against Torture. The document argues that a forced return to their birth countries could expose them to grave danger, yet it has not halted deportation procedures on the ground.
Leveraging those rulings, a local law firm has filed a petition before Ghana’s Supreme Court challenging the legality of the bilateral migration deal. Counsel insists that hosting deportees from third countries exceeds Accra’s constitutional mandate and undermines its international human-rights obligations.
Supreme Court Hearing on 12 November
The first hearing is set for 12 November. Observers note that the bench’s reading of domestic and treaty law will shape not only the migrants’ immediate prospects but also the trajectory of future flights under the accord. For now, the eight detainees remain in limbo, their hopes pinned on judicial relief.
Government representatives have not publicly commented on the case, maintaining a studied silence that mirrors the discreet arrival of each deportation flight. Washington, likewise, has offered no details on criteria used to select Ghana as the transit point for non-Ghanaian nationals.
Numbers Hint at a Larger Pipeline
With at least three flights recorded since September, the flow averages one removal every six weeks. The latest manifest listed citizens of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and Sierra Leone alongside the Nigerians already dispatched, underscoring the agreement’s regional scope. No mention has been made of consular notifications or verifications of nationality before onward removal.
Migrants and lawyers stress that the absence of identity documents complicates repatriation, yet the process continues. Each new flight risks multiplying stateless individuals if receiving states deny entry, an outcome the detained group fears could leave them stranded indefinitely in transit zones.
Accra’s Balancing Act
For Ghanaian authorities, cooperation with Washington delivers diplomatic capital but invites domestic scrutiny. The visible use of military personnel at a civilian hotel reflects a determination to prevent escapes and enforce onward transfers, even as judges in the United States recognized potential harm awaiting the migrants in their homelands.
Inside the hotel, conversations centre on timelines. Some migrants count the days until the Supreme Court session; others recall the months spent in American detention, measuring hope against fatigue. Until a ruling arrives, their journey remains suspended between continents, courtrooms and the guarded lobby where their story continues to unfold.
