Sierra Leone to Accept US-Deported West Africans

By Ibrahim Suma

Sierra Leone has agreed to receive hundreds of West African migrants deported by the United States, its foreign minister confirmed on Saturday, becoming the latest African country to sign a removal deal with the Trump administration.

Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba told Reuters that the first flight, carrying 25 nationals from Senegal, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria, is expected to land in Freetown on 20 May. Under the agreement, Sierra Leone will accept up to 300 citizens of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) per year, at a maximum of 25 per month.

Kabba described the arrangement as part of Sierra Leone’s bilateral relationship with Washington. He did not disclose what, if anything, Freetown would receive in return.

The deal follows similar agreements the US has struck with Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Eswatini, as the Trump administration presses to accelerate deportations. However, those earlier arrangements have drawn sharp criticism from legal experts and human rights groups, who raised concerns about the legal basis for transferring migrants to countries where they hold no nationality.

Previous reports found that some deportees sent to Ghana were later forced on to further flights back to their home countries, even in cases where American courts had issued orders specifically protecting them from such transfers. Whether those arriving in Sierra Leone will be permitted to remain there is not yet clear.

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Sierra Leone just agreed to receive West Africans deported from America. People from Senegal. Ghana. Guinea. Nigeria. Sent to a country they have never lived in. 🇸🇱
The first flight arrives May 20th, carrying 25 people under a deal that allows the US to send up to 300 ECOWAS citizens to Sierra Leone every year.
And here is the part that should make every African furious. African governments did not agree to this freely. The Trump administration threatened travel bans and visa restrictions on diplomats from countries that refused to cooperate. This was not partnership. It was coercion dressed in diplomatic language.
Sierra Leone is now the tenth African country to accept migrants expelled by the US under a system widely criticised for violating human rights and international law.
Africa is being used as a dumping ground. And African leaders are signing the paperwork under pressure they are too isolated to resist alone.
This is exactly why Pan-African solidarity is not a slogan. It is a survival strategy.
If African nations stood together and collectively refused these deals, what leverage would Washington actually have? 🌍
#HistoricalAfrica #PanAfrica #AfricaWatch #SierraLeone #AfricaIsNotADumpingGround