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Hundreds of West African migrants facing deportation from the United States will be flown to Sierra Leone starting this month under a bilateral agreement between Freetown and Washington.
The first flight, scheduled for May 20, will carry nationals from Senegal, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria, according to Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba.
Under the arrangement, Sierra Leone has committed to accepting 300 citizens of ECOWAS member states annually from the United States, with a monthly cap of 25 individuals, Kabba told Reuters.
“Sierra Leone signed a Third Country National Agreement with the US to accept 300 ECOWAS citizens from the US per year,” the minister said.
The deal mirrors a similar agreement Ghana has with Washington. The United States has previously struck such arrangements with several African nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, and Eswatini.
Kabba did not say whether deportees would be permitted to remain in Sierra Leone or what compensation, if any, Freetown would receive in exchange. He described the arrangement as part of broader bilateral ties.
“It’s part of our bilateral relationship with the US to assist with its immigration policy,” he said.
A February report by Democrats on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee found that the total cost of third-country removals remains unclear, though at least $32 million has been sent to five nations, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini and Palau, under similar agreements.
