*US judge questions deportation of Nigerian, Gambian migrants to Ghana
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed that Nigeria is currently hosting 109,000 asylum seekers and refugees from at least 41 countries globally.
The UN refugee agency, in its multi-year strategy report, from 2023 to 2025, said Nigeria was redefining its national policies and regional engagement following the election of President Bola Tinubu in 2023.
UNHCR stated that the Renewed Hope National Agenda (2023-2027) under the Nigerian president touched upon almost every aspect of UNHCR’s mandate, establishing a conducive environment for sustainable solutions.
The report said, “Nigeria continues to be a country of origin, transit, and destination currently hosting asylum seekers and refugees (over 109,000 individuals from 41 countries), a majority of whom are from the Lake Chad Basin region.
“The operation supports refugees, stateless, returnees, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Conflict with non-state armed groups, communal violence, climate shocks, and other factors contribute to large-scale forced displacement both in Nigeria and in the region.”
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According to the report, Nigeria is faced with the enormous responsibility of contributing to regional security, despite its socio-economic challenges, such as a high poverty and inflation rates.
It stated that partnerships, including existing and potential government, humanitarian and development partners, civil society, community-based organisations, the private sector, and displaced communities themselves provided unique opportunities to address the complexities.
In that context, UNHCR said it aimed to deliver sustainable solution-driven protection services for mandated displaced communities in targeted and most in-need locations of the country.
It stated, “In 2025, UNHCR will pivot away from providing substitutional services and blanket in-kind assistance to ensuring that all displaced communities have access to government services, to livelihood opportunities and other long-term support protection mechanisms with a view to becoming self-reliant over time.
“Cash-based initiatives will be expanded to strengthen the social safety net mechanisms and reach communities most at risk. Community-based/civil society organisations (CSOs), including refugee and IDP-led organisations (RLOs) will be supported to deliver key services within their community.”
According to the UN body, there are renewed discussions with the Nigerian government to revisit the current operational approach, while engagement will also be undertaken, aimed at handing over activities to the government.
UNHCR stated, “All this will not only result in sustainable programming but enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness, allowing for UNHCR to reinforce and even expand its footprint and deliver more impactful and targeted responses to regions such as the Middle Belt that are facing large-scale protracted displacement situations with little development support from other partners.
“In addition to continuing to advocate for inclusive policies towards displaced communities by the government, UNHCR will also step up efforts to ensure that forcibly displaced and host communities are better funded by donor governments, development partners and the private sector.”
Meanwhile, a U.S. judge at the weekend said it appeared President Donald Trump’s administration intentionally circumvented immigration laws last week when it deported Nigerian and Gambian migrants to Ghana.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, based in Washington D.C., scheduled an emergency hearing after lawyers representing some of the migrants said their clients expected they could be moved to their home countries, where they feared torture or persecution.
Chutkan later ordered the Trump administration to file a report by 9pm EDT explaining how it was trying to stop Ghana from sending the migrants to Nigeria or Gambia, Reuters reported.
The deportations are part of Trump’s strategy to send migrants to “third countries” to speed their removal and pressure illegal migrants in the U.S. to leave.
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said last week that his country struck an agreement with the U.S. to accept West African deportees, and it had already received 14 people.
But Chutkan said it appeared the Trump administration crafted the deal as a way “to make an end run” around U.S. legal requirements that it refrained from sending migrants to danger in their home countries.
“These are not speculative concerns,” said Chutkan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, “The concerns are real enough that the United States government agrees they shouldn’t be sent back to their home country.”
A lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of five of the migrants said they were taken from a Louisiana immigration detention centre, shackled and put on a U.S. military plane without being told their destination. Several migrants on the flight were placed in straitjackets for 16 hours, the complaint said.
The five plaintiffs had U.S legal protection against deportation to their home countries, the lawsuit said. One of the migrants had already been sent to Gambia and was in hiding, it said. The other four had been held in squalid conditions in an open-air detention facility operated by the Ghanaian military, it added.
In a court filing, U.S Department of Justice said it no longer had custody of the migrants, the court lacked authority to intervene in diplomatic actions, and that a Supreme Court decision in June allowed the government to send migrants to countries other than their country of citizenship.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said detainees on the flight were not made to wear straitjackets. McLaughlin did not comment on the allegations of circumventing immigration law.
Plaintiffs are represented by two advocacy groups, American Civil Liberties Union and Asian Americans Advancing Justice. The deportations have sparked criticism in Ghana.
In a statement on Friday, opposition lawmakers called for the agreement to be suspended, saying it should have been approved by Ghana’s National Assembly.
The deal “risks our country being perceived as aligning itself with the U.S. government’s current immigration enforcement regime, one which has been criticised as harsh and discriminatory,” the statement said.
