The Labour Division of the High Court in Accra has scheduled Tuesday, September 23, 2025, to hear two urgent applications filed by eleven West African nationals challenging their detention in Ghana after being deported from the United States.
The applicants are seeking an interim injunction to halt their deportation to their home countries and a writ of Habeas Corpus to compel the government to justify the basis for their continued detention.
At a virtual sitting on Thursday, Justice Priscilla Dikro said she needed more time to study the applications. Counsel for the applicants, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, argued that his clients had been unlawfully detained and described the matter as urgent.
The eleven include four Nigerians, two Malians, two Togolese, one Liberian, and one Gambian. They have sued the Attorney-General, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Comptroller-General of Immigration, insisting their fundamental rights have been violated.
In their affidavits, the group claim they were secretly removed from U.S. detention centres earlier this month, shackled, and flown to Ghana without notice. Upon arrival, they allege, they were handed to Ghanaian authorities and confined in a military facility without due process.
They argue that the detention breaches Articles 14 and 23 of Ghana’s Constitution, which guarantee personal liberty and administrative justice, and violates the international principle of non-refoulement. Lawyers say at least eight of the applicants had previously secured protection under U.S. Convention Against Torture proceedings, preventing their deportation to countries where they face persecution or torture.
The court will hear the interim applications on September 23 before considering the substantive human rights case.
