The United States has deported up to 42 people to Ghana since early September under a deal aimed at returning West African nationals and part of Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration, a Ghanaian human rights group reported Tuesday.

The plight of these nationals came to light last month when Ghanaian President John Mahama revealed that his country had agreed to accept West Africans deported from the United States.

These people were "forcibly repatriated in three groups, on September 6, September 19 and October 13, 2025," lawyers from the civil society group Democracy Hub said in a statement.

Ghana has sent some of them back to their home countries or abandoned them in third countries without papers, lawyers for those deported said Tuesday.

Democracy Hub has filed a lawsuit in Accra seeking to have the deportation agreement between Accra and Washington declared illegal, as well as the treatment of deportees deported to Ghana, according to court documents seen by AFP on Tuesday.

- A complaint filed -

On Monday, the organization filed a complaint with Ghana's Supreme Court through its lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor.

She argued that Mr. Mahama had "acted unconstitutionally" by implementing the agreement with the US government regarding "the reception, detention and transfer to Ghana of involuntarily repatriated West African nationals" without parliamentary ratification.

The appeal also asks the Supreme Court to declare "illegal and unconstitutional" the detention in military camps and the transfer of repatriated persons who have not otherwise "been charged with any crime."

"Democracy Hub maintains that no government has the power to secretly exempt Ghana from its constitutional and human rights obligations," the lawyers said in the statement Tuesday.

"The Constitution requires transparency, parliamentary oversight and respect for human dignity in all matters of international cooperation," they added.

- United Nations -

Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, admitted last week that his country was taking in deportees in exchange for lifting US visa restrictions.

"They (the Americans) told us: 'Okay, you came to us with what you want. You want us to lift visa restrictions, you want the AGOA (trade agreement) extended, you want us to review the 15% tariff. We are also facing immigration challenges... So we want you to help us address this issue,'" the minister explained on TV3 Ghana.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Ghana to stop deportations to Nigeria, Gambia, Togo, Mali, Liberia or any other third country "when there are substantial grounds to believe that individuals could be subjected to torture there."

Asked by AFP at the end of September, the US State Department indicated that it "will continue to use all appropriate means to remove foreigners who should not be on American soil."