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Nurse with withholding of removal deported to Ghana, then dragged to Sierra Leone

Jul 6, 2026·Location: Baltimore, MD

Country of origin: Sierra Leone

Nurse with withholding of removal deported to Ghana, then dragged to Sierra Leone
Photo via The Guardian

Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old nurse who spent more than 30 years in the U.S. caring for Covid-19 patients and disabled adults, was detained by ICE agents during a routine check-in in Baltimore on July 1, 2025, with her son Mohamed present. Kuyateh had fled civil war in Sierra Leone as a child and had been granted a withholding of removal protecting her from being sent back there, saying she had no criminal record: "I did not commit any crime; I always abided by the law." After four months in ICE custody, she was deported to Ghana as part of a third-country deportation, a country with which she had no ties. Video obtained by news outlets shows Ghanaian officials dragging her by her hair, shoeless and screaming, through a hotel in Accra and forcing her onward to Sierra Leone, the country a U.S. judge had ruled would endanger her life. She is now living in hiding in an undisclosed location in Africa.

Timeline

Jul 6, 2026—Report reveals she is living in hiding in an undisclosed location in Africa
Nov 1, 2025—Deported to Ghana after four months in ICE custody; later forcibly moved toward Sierra Leone by Ghanaian officials, video of incident circulates
Jul 1, 2025—Detained by ICE agents during a routine check-in in Baltimore, Maryland
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