Three Nigerians deported from the United States and left in Ghana have filed a lawsuit in Washington DC, alleging inhuman treatment during their deportation.
The suit, lodged at the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, was filed on behalf of the Nigerians and two Gambian deportees by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC).
According to court filings, the plaintiffs—identified only by their initials D.A., T.L., I.O., D.S., and K.S.—said they were shackled and given only bread and water during a 16-hour flight on a US military cargo plane.
They claimed immigration officers woke them in the middle of the night on September 5 at a detention centre in Alexandria, Louisiana, without telling them their destination until hours into the journey.
The lawsuit names as defendants the US Secretary of Homeland Security, the Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Attorney General, and the Secretary of State.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the deportation violated due process and circumvented restrictions placed by immigration judges, who had ruled that the migrants could not be sent back to their home countries under the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Convention Against Torture.
Defendants know that they may not, consistent with US immigration law, directly deport non-citizens to countries from which they have been granted fear-based protection,” the filing said. “As an end-run around this prohibition, defendants have enlisted the government of Ghana to do their dirty work.”
The plaintiffs are asking District Judge Tanya Chutkan to order their return to the US.
The case comes amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing crackdown on immigrants, many of whom he has labelled as criminals and “aliens” who overstayed their visas.
