In June 2026, a coalition including Ghanaian lawyer Oliver Barker-Vormawor's firm, Cornell Law School's Transnational Disputes Clinic, and the Global Strategic Litigation Council sued Ghana before the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria, on behalf of 27 of at least 60 people the U.S. has deported to Ghana since September 2025 under its third-country removal policy. It is the first case ever brought under a 1979 regional treaty guaranteeing free movement across West Africa. Medical evaluations cited in the suit found signs of post-traumatic stress and severe depression in several deportees, some of whom described being shackled during the flight from the U.S. and then held under armed guard in military camps, hotels and airport holding cells, often in poor conditions. The suit accuses Ghana of violating non-refoulement by flying most of the 27 onward to their home countries within hours or days of arrival despite U.S. court protections against such removals, and asks the court to halt further transfers, force disclosure of the deal's terms, award damages, and bar similar agreements. The one-page August 1, 2025 diplomatic note, published by the U.S. this month, commits Ghana not to transfer anyone to a country where they would face persecution or torture; Ghana nonetheless flew Sierra Leonean nurse Rabbiatu Kuyateh to Sierra Leone days after she arrived, and other deportees were left at the Togo border in the middle of the night.