Sierra Leone to take in hundreds of West Africans deported by US, minister says

The first flight of so-called third-country deportees will arrive in ⁠Sierra Leone on 20 May transporting 25 nationals from Senegal, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria, Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba told Reuters.

“Sierra Leone signed a Third Country National Agreement ‌with the US to accept 300 Ecowas citizens from the US per year with a ⁠maximum of 25 a month," Kabba said, referring to the 15-member West African regional bloc.

The US has previously sent third-country deportees to African states including Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea ​and Eswatini.

The move has been criticised by 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.

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Sierra Leone's arrangement to accept only deportees from Ecowas countries is similar to that of Ghana.

Deportees sent to Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and elsewhere on the continent have then been forced to return to their home countries ​despite receiving court-ordered protection in the US designed to prevent that from happening.

It is unclear whether the deportees sent to Sierra Leone will be allowed to stay there. 

Kabba did not say what Sierra Leone would get in ​return for taking in the deportees, but noted it was "part of our bilateral relationship with ​the US to assist with its immigration policy".

In a report published in February entitled "At what cost?" , Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the total ​cost of third-country removals was unknown, but that more than $32 million had been sent directly to five countries – Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini and Palau.

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The US and Sierra Leone have been at odds on deportations before. In 2017, during the first Trump administration, Washington said the US Embassy in Freetown would deny tourist and business visas ⁠to Sierra Leonean foreign ministry and immigration officials because the government was refusing to take in Sierra Leonean deportees.

The State Department did ⁠not immediately respond ​to a request for comment on the new agreement with Sierra Leone. The White House and the State Department have previously said the deportations are lawful.

(with newswires)