Sierra Leone receives first US deportees from West Africa

Sierra Leone will receive on Wednesday the first group of migrants deported from the United States, as the Trump administration pushes ahead with expulsions to third countries.

An initial charter flight carrying 25 migrants will arrive in the capital, Freetown, on Wednesday morning, the Sierra Leonean foreign minister said. The deal allows the country to take up to 300 deportees of West African origin annually.

Sierra Leone joins several African countries that have struck similar deals with Washington, including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan.

“We are accepting the deportees because they are from West Africa and some have Sierra Leonean documentation obtained many years ago,” Foreign Minister Timothy Musa Kabba told AFP. “They have a right to stay in the country for a period of 90 days, and they can travel back home to their country of origin.”

The United States will provide $1.5 million to support humanitarian and operational costs, the ministry said.

SOURCE: AFP