His comments follow President John Dramani Mahama’s disclosure last week that the deportees arrived in Ghana after an agreement with the US government. The move comes under President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policy, which has seen record-level deportations of migrants living illegally in the US.

Prof. Antwi-Danso, in an interview with 3News, dismissed suggestions that Ghana accepted the deportees purely on humanitarian grounds without assurances from Washington.

“It is never true that in such diplomatic relations, you go on humanitarian grounds and you gain nothing. Even on humanitarian grounds there is something promised. There is no way any relationship is made on the grounds of one side winning and the other side losing. So there must be some promise given us by the Americans before we accepted to bring them here,” he said.

He further criticised the framing of the deportation as Ghana’s problem, insisting that the migrants are West African and should have been addressed within the ECOWAS framework.

“Again my beef is on the question of they are West Africans, so we were humanitarian enough to bring them. Why should it be the case that America’s immigration problem should be the problem of Ghana and not the problem of ECOWAS? Why did America not negotiate with ECOWAS and negotiated with Ghana? What role is Ghana playing and who is paying for their upkeep here, whatever it is?” he asked.

Meanwhile, the Labour Division of the High Court in Accra has fixed Tuesday, September 23, 2025, to hear two ex-parte applications filed by eleven West African nationals challenging their detention in Ghana following deportation from the United States.

The applicants are seeking two key reliefs: an interim injunction to halt their deportation to their home countries and a writ of Habeas Corpus, compelling the government to present them before the court and justify the basis for their detention.

At a virtual sitting on Thursday, September 18, Justice Priscilla Dikro said she would require more time to examine the applications before making a ruling. Counsel for the applicants, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, argued that the matter was urgent, stressing that his clients had been unlawfully detained.

According to the defense, President John Dramani Mahama has already announced plans for the detainees’ deportation, a statement confirmed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The interim injunction seeks to restrain that process, while the Habeas Corpus writ requests a formal order directing the government to produce the applicants in court.

The eleven individuals include Nigerians Daniel Osas Aigbosa, Ahmed Animashaun, Ifeanyi Okechukwu, and Taiwo K. Lawson; Liberian national Kalu John; Togolese nationals Zito Yao Bruno and Agouda Richarla Oukpedzo Sikiratou; Gambian national Sidiben Dawda; and Malians Toure Dianke and Boubou Gassama.

They have sued the Attorney-General, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service at the Human Rights Division of the High Court, insisting their fundamental rights have been violated.