By Umaru Fofana
FREETOWN, May 20 (Reuters) – A plane transporting nine West Africans deported by the Trump administration arrived in Sierra Leone on Wednesday, part of Washington’s latest deal with an African country aimed at accelerating removals.
• Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba told Reuters last week that Freetown had agreed to take in 300 West African migrants annually who were being deported by the U.S., with no more than 25 arriving each month.
• The deportees who arrived on Wednesday included seven men and two women from Ghana, Senegal, Guinea and Nigeria, said Patrick Robin, head of Kenvah Solutions, the private contractor hired to house the deportees at two hotels near the airport.
• It was unclear how long the deportees would be able to stay in Sierra Leone. A government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. “We will look after them in a dignified and comfortable way for up to two weeks,” Robin said, adding that in “exceptional circumstances” some could stay in the facilities for 30 days.
• Sierra Leone’s arrangement to accept only deportees from West African countries is similar to Ghana’s. Reuters has previously reported on how 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 U.S. meant to prevent that from happening.
• Robin said “most of” those who arrived in Sierra Leone on Wednesday said they wanted to go home. However, a Reuters witness said at least one of the deportees appeared to resist getting off the flight on Wednesday before being persuaded to do so.
• It is not clear what, if anything, Sierra Leone is getting in exchange for taking in the deportees.
• In a report published in February, 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.
• A State Department spokesperson declined to comment.
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana in Freetown; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet)
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