Sierra Leone is the latest African country to accept West African deportees from the United States as the President Donald Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Timothy Kabba, minister of foreign affairs, told Reuters the country agreed to take in hundreds of West African migrants.
The first flight of so-called third-country deportees is scheduled to arrive in Sierra Leone on May 20, carrying 25 nationals from Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, and Nigeria.
“Sierra Leone signed a Third Country National Agreement with the U.S. to accept 300 ECOWAS citizens from the U.S. per year with a maximum of 25 a month,” Reuters quoted Kabba as saying.
Kabba did not say what Sierra Leone would get in return for taking in the deportees. It is also unclear whether the deportees sent to Sierra Leone will be allowed to stay there.
The US struck a similar agreement with Ghana last year, allowing only West African nationals to be sent to the country.
However, the deportees, which included four Nigerians, filed a complaint alleging unlawful detention and human rights violations.
The US has previously sent third-country deportees to African states including Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Eswatini, drawing criticism from legal experts and rights groups over the legal basis for the transfers and the treatment of deportees sent to countries where they are not nationals.
Nigeria was also approached but Yusuf Tuggar, then-Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, said the federal government would not take in third-country deportees, citing national security and economic concerns.
