The High Court in Accra will on September 23, 2025 hear urgent applications filed by eleven West African nationals contesting their detention in Ghana after being deported from the United States.
The applicants are seeking two remedies: an interim injunction to stop their deportation to their home countries and a writ of Habeas Corpus to compel the state to justify their detention.
At a virtual sitting on September 18, Justice Priscilla Dikro said she needed more time to study the applications. Counsel Oliver Barker-Vormawor argued that his clients were “unlawfully detained” and that the matter demanded swift action.
The group—comprising nationals of Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Gambia, and Mali, say they were secretly removed from U.S. detention centers earlier this month, shackled, and flown to Ghana without explanation.
Upon arrival, they claim they were handed to Ghanaian authorities and confined in what they describe as a military facility without due process.
They have sued the Attorney-General, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Comptroller-General of Immigration, insisting that their detention violates Articles 14 and 23 of the Constitution, which guarantee personal liberty and administrative justice.
Their lawyers further argue that Ghana has ignored the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning people to countries where they risk torture or persecution.
Barker-Vormawor told the court that at least eight of the applicants had previously secured protection under U.S. proceedings against torture, which should have barred their deportation.
