A United States federal judge has criticised the Donald Trump administration over the deportation of Nigerian and Gambian migrants to Ghana.
Tanya Chutkan, a judge of the district court in Washington DC, raised concerns on Saturday after lawyers representing some of the migrants argued that their clients risked torture or persecution if returned to their home countries.
Chutkan ordered the US government to submit a sworn statement outlining the mechanisms in place to prevent the deported migrants from being sent from Ghana to Nigeria and Gambia.
The judge questioned the legality of the arrangement, saying it looked like an “end run” around US laws that prohibit deportations which could expose migrants to harm.
“I have not been shy about saying that I think this is a very suspicious scheme,” The New York Times quoted her as saying.
She further suggested that the Trump administration may have deliberately bypassed immigration laws in the process. However, she declined to rule in favour of the migrants, noting: “There’s no point in getting decisions from me that are immediately going to be stayed” by the Supreme Court.
A lawsuit filed on Friday by five migrants alleged that they were taken from a Louisiana detention facility, shackled, and placed on a US military plane without being informed of their destination.
The suit, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, argued that the migrants had legal protections preventing deportation to Nigeria and Gambia.
The US Department of Justice countered that it no longer had custody of the migrants, insisting the court had no jurisdiction over diplomatic decisions. It also cited a Supreme Court ruling that permits the government to deport migrants to countries other than their own.
John Mahama, president of Ghana, recently confirmed that his country had reached an agreement with the US to accept West African deportees. He disclosed that 14 migrants had already arrived in Ghana.
