A disturbing video showing Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) officers forcibly dragging a Sierra Leonean woman across the floor of an Accra hotel has re-ignited debate in Ghana about the country’s role in accepting deportees from the United States.
It has raised questions about human rights, regional obligations, and the opacity surrounding a controversial bilateral agreement.
The footage, which surfaced on social media in early November and quickly went viral, captures the chaotic scene at a hotel in Accra.
The woman, identified as Rabiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old former nurse who had lived in the United States for three decades, is seen resisting as uniformed officers pull her by the arms and legs toward a waiting vehicle.
Eyewitness accounts and local reports describe her pleading to remain in Ghana, citing fears of persecution in her native Sierra Leone and a lack of family ties there.
During the struggle, Kuyateh reportedly sustained injuries, including a bump to the back of her head.
Ghanaian media outlets reported that the incident occurred as Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) officials attempted to relocate a group of U.S. deportees — many of whom had been temporarily housed in the hotel — for onward travel to their countries of origin.
Agreement Between Ghana and US
The deportees, primarily from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, and other West African nations, arrived in Ghana under a little-publicized memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Accra and Washington.
The deal, announced by President John Mahama in September, positions Ghana as a transit hub for third-country deportations, leveraging ECOWAS free-movement protocols to facilitate the return of migrants who lacked direct flight routes home or faced legal barriers to immediate repatriation.
The viral video has fueled broader scrutiny of the deal.
Reports of other deportees facing restricted movement, limited access to legal counsel, and pressured onward travel have amplified concerns.
In one earlier case widely covered in the media, several deportees alleged they were secretly bused to neighboring Togo and abandoned without documentation.
The episode comes amid a surge in U.S. deportations under the renewed third-country removal program, with dozens of West Africans routed through Ghana since the summer.
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, earlier in September, defended the arrangement with the US.
“Our decision is grounded purely on humanitarian principle and pan-African solidarity to offer temporary refuge where needed, to prevent further human suffering, and to maintain our credibility as a responsible regional actor,” he said in an interview.
Sierra Leone
Kuyateh, who fled Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 1990s and built a life in Maryland as a mother and homeowner, had secured a U.S. court order barring her deportation to Sierra Leone due to fears of torture.
Her family and U.S.-based attorney contend she was removed to Ghana without due process. Now in limbo after the hotel confrontation, her whereabouts remain unclear, though her son in the United States has appealed for her safe return.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
