Eleven people detained in Ghana after being deported from the US have sued the West African nation's government, their lawyer has told the BBC.
Oliver-Barker Vormawor said the deportees had not violated any Ghanaian law, and their detention in a military camp was therefore illegal.
He wants the government to produce the group in court and justify why they were being held against their will, the lawyer added.
The government has not yet commented on the lawsuit, but has previously indicated plans to accept another 40 deportees. Opposition MPs are demanding the immediate suspension of the deportation deal until parliament ratifies it, citing Ghanaian legal requirements.
Last week, Ghana's President John Mahama stated that 14 deportees of West African origin had arrived in the country following an agreement with the US.
He later claimed all of them had been returned to their countries of origin, though Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa contradicted him by stating that only most had been returned.
Mr. Vormawor's court application contradicts both of them, asserting that 11 deportees are still in detention in Ghana.
The 11 were held in a US detention facility before being shackled and deported in a military cargo aircraft, according to court documents.
The deportations are part of the US government's stringent immigration policies since former President Donald Trump's administration, which has pushed for record-level deportations.
Ghana's foreign minister clarified that the decision to accept the deportees was based on 'humanitarian principle and pan-African empathy,' emphasizing that it should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of the former administration's immigration policies.
Five of the detainees, three Nigerians and two Gambians, also filed a lawsuit against the US government, arguing that a court order protected them from deportation.
