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A plane carrying West African migrants deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown arrived in Sierra Leone on Wednesday, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Twenty-five migrants from West African countries who were on board landed at the international airport outside Freetown and were received by police officers, medical personnel, government officials, and representatives of the International Organisation for Migration.
Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister, Timothy Musa Kabba, said the country had agreed to accept up to 300 deportees annually from member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc under an arrangement with Washington.
He explained that some of the deportees previously held Sierra Leonean residence permits and would be allowed to remain in the country for up to 90 days before returning to their countries of origin.
“We are taking in these deported people because they are from West Africa, and some of them hold Sierra Leonean residence permits obtained many years ago,” Kabba told AFP by telephone late Tuesday.
“They have the right to stay in the country for 90 days and can then return to their country of origin”, he said.
According to a foreign ministry document seen by AFP, the United States will provide $1.5 million to support the programme and cover humanitarian and operational costs linked to the agreement.
Sierra Leone joins several African countries, including Cameroon, Rwanda, Ghana, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that have accepted deportees from the United States in recent months.
Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have criticised the deportation agreements, arguing that such arrangements lack transparency and could violate international human rights standards.
