A plane carrying nine West African migrants deported from the United States landed in Sierra Leone on Wednesday, marking the first group to arrive under a new agreement between Washington and the West African nation.
The deportees seven men and two women from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Guinea were flown into Freetown as part of the Trump administration’s expanding push to speed up removals through deals with African countries.
Last week, Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba told Reuters that the country had agreed to receive up to 300 West African deportees from the US each year, with arrivals expected in batches of no more than 25 people monthly.
Patrick Robin, head of Kenvah Solutions, the private company handling accommodation for the arrivals, said the deportees would be housed in two hotels near the airport.
According to him, they would be cared for “in a dignified and comfortable way” for up to two weeks, although some could remain longer in exceptional cases.
It remains unclear what will happen to the deportees after that period or whether Sierra Leone has secured any formal benefits in exchange for the arrangement.
A Reuters witness at the airport said at least one deportee initially resisted leaving the aircraft before eventually stepping off.
Robin said most of those who arrived expressed a desire to return to their home countries.
Sierra Leone’s agreement mirrors similar arrangements involving countries such as Ghana and Equatorial Guinea, where deportees sent from the US have reportedly struggled despite having legal protections that were meant to stop their removal.
A report released in February by Democrats on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said more than $32 million had already been sent to several countries participating in similar deportation deals, including Rwanda, El Salvador and Equatorial Guinea.
The US State Department declined to comment on whether Sierra Leone would receive financial support under the arrangement.
