Shackled and Deported from US to Cameroon: 3 Ghanaian LGBTQ+ women recount ordeal
Three Ghanaian women who fled the country because of persecution over their sexual orientation have recounted how they were shackled and deported from the United States to Cameroon.
According to a DW report, the women, who are members of Ghana’s LGBTQ+ community, arrived in the US in 2024 seeking safety and asylum.
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Immigration authorities later took them into custody and granted them legal protection that prevented the US from sending them back to Ghana.
However, the report added that despite this protection, the 3 women were among 36 migrants deported to Cameroon in January 2026, even though they had no ties to the country.
One of the women, speaking in an interview with the international media outlet, said they were put on a train and transported to Cameroon in chains.
She said the manner in which they were restrained made her feel as though she had committed a serious crime.
“You couldn’t move, and it felt like we had committed some kind of crime, like terrorism. I felt like a terrorist because what on earth did I do to be shackled like that to the point that I couldn’t move. I just came to the US for safety. I didn’t expect that at all,” she said.
Another woman said they had gone to the US because they did not feel safe in Ghana and rejected the treatment they received during the deportation.
“We are not criminals. We entered America to be safe. If we were safe in our country, we wouldn’t have gone to the US to seek asylum, and this is so heartbreaking because you can't treat human beings like this. We are treated like we are slaves. We don't have life anymore, and Cameroon is not a safe country,” she said.
According to the report, the 36 deportees were detained for about two months in a government compound in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.
They were reportedly only allowed to leave the compound after they went on a hunger strike.
The deportees are reportedly required to return to the compound by sundown when they go out and are not allowed to work while their asylum applications are pending.
Fru Joseph, the lawyer representing the deportees, said the women face another possible threat because they were sent to a country they do not know and where they could face persecution.
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“You cannot send somebody to harm that they are fleeing from, and so that's the concern with this special group of people. Because they are not only vulnerable, they are doubly victimized because they are running away from a country that has persecuted them, and then now they are being sent to a country they do not know that still has the possibility of persecuting them. That makes it even doubly dangerous,” he said.
The deportation to Cameroon is under a US third-country deportation agreement.
MAG/VPO
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