Written by: Badr Ahmed

I received Sierra LeoneThe first deportation flight of migrants coming from the United States, in a move that reflects the expansion of US President Donald Trump’s campaign to tighten immigration policies and deport undocumented immigrants to African countries.

A plane carrying nine migrants from West African countries arrived at Freetown International Airport, outside the Sierra Leonean capital, according to an AFP journalist who was present when the plane landed.

Sierra Leonean Foreign Minister Timothy Musa Kaba said his country had already received the first batch of deportees, after he had previously indicated that 25 people were expected to arrive.

He explained that the group included migrants from Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea and Senegal, among them seven men and two women, who appeared to be in a bad psychological state while being transported by bus under police escort.

Sierra Leone welcomes deported migrants from the United States

Doris Bah, an official at Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health, revealed that all the deportees were suffering from severe psychological trauma as a result of being kept in chains for months during their detention in the United States, adding that most of them expressed a desire to return to their countries of origin.

Bah noted that some migrants were arrested while working or even while engaging in sports activities in the United States, before being detained pending deportation.

According to the agreement between Washington and Freetown, Sierra Leone will accept up to 300 deported migrants annually, provided they are citizens of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Sierra Leonean authorities confirmed that some of the deportees held old residence permits in the country, which gives them the right to stay for up to 90 days before being returned to their home countries.

A document issued by the Sierra Leonean Foreign Ministry, seen by AFP, revealed that the United States will provide $1.5 million to support the program, including covering humanitarian and operational costs associated with reception and accommodation operations.

Sierra Leone thus joins a growing list of African countries that have agreed to accept deported migrants from the United States, including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan.

In contrast, these agreements have drawn criticism from human rights organizations, with Human Rights Watch calling on African countries to reject what it described as “opaque deals,” arguing that they represent part of a US policy that violates international human rights.