{"id":5908,"date":"2026-05-16T22:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T22:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly"},"modified":"2026-05-16T23:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T23:45:23","slug":"sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leone to Receive 300 Migrants Yearly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>The Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone stated that the country has agreed to accept hundreds of migrants from West Africa who are being deported by the United States, in the latest agreement of this kind made by the administration of the American president in efforts to expedite deportation processes.<\/p>\n

Minister Timothy Kaba, in remarks to a local source, explained that the first flight carrying what is known as “third country nationals” will arrive in Sierra Leone on May 20, with 25 individuals from Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, and Nigeria on board.<\/p>\n

Kaba indicated that the country signed an agreement with the United States regarding citizens of third countries, stipulating the acceptance of 300 citizens from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) annually from the United States, with a maximum of 25 individuals per month.<\/p>\n

Previously, the United States had sent deportees to African countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Cameroon, Guinea Equatorial, and Eswatini, which has drawn criticism from legal experts and human rights organizations regarding the legal basis for the transfers and the treatment of deportees sent to countries of which they are not citizens.<\/p>\n

The arrangement with Sierra Leone, which is limited to receiving deportees from ECOWAS countries, is similar to the arrangement in Ghana.<\/p>\n

A local source had previously reported that some deportees sent to Ghana, Guinea Equatorial, and other countries on the continent were later forced to return to their home countries, despite having received judicial protection orders in the United States that were supposed to prevent this.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether the deportees who will be transferred to Sierra Leone will be allowed to stay there. While the Foreign Minister did not clarify what Sierra Leone would receive in return for accepting these deportees, he stated: “It is part of our bilateral relationship with the United States to assist in implementing its immigration policy.”<\/p>\n

In a report published in February, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated that the total cost of deportations to third countries remains unknown, but over $32 million has been directly transferred to five countries: Guinea Equatorial, Rwanda, El Salvador, Eswatini, and Palau.<\/p>\n

Relations between the United States and Sierra Leone have previously seen disagreements regarding deportation issues; in 2017, during the first term of the president, Washington announced that the American embassy in Freetown would refuse to grant tourist and business visas to officials of the Foreign and Immigration Ministries in Sierra Leone due to the government’s refusal to accept deportees from its citizens.<\/p>\n

The first resettlement program in Africa was designed in 1787 when the British government settled about 400 blacks in the Sierra Leone Peninsula in West Africa, and within two years, most of the settlers died due to epidemics or civil wars.<\/p>\n

In 1792, a second attempt was made when 1,100 former slaves, most of whom fought alongside Britain during the American Revolution, established Freetown (now the capital of Sierra Leone) under the leadership of Englishman Thomas Clarkson, a pioneer in the campaign against the slave trade in the British Empire.<\/p>\n

Over the following decades, thousands of freed slaves from Canada, the West Indies, and other parts of West Africa moved to the Sierra Leone colony, and in 1821, the American Colonization Society established the colony of Liberia – south of Sierra Leone – to be a home for formerly enslaved blacks, to be outside British jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Between 1822 and the American Civil War (1861-1865), about 15,000 Americans of African descent settled in Liberia, which the United States granted independence in 1847 under British pressure, before Liberia received official American recognition in 1862, becoming the first independent republic in African history.<\/p>\n

This step is part of a broader policy adopted by the Trump administration to deport migrants, under which similar agreements were made with at least seven African countries, including Eswatini, South Sudan, Guinea Equatorial, as well as other countries like Ghana and Cameroon.<\/p>\n

The migrant deportation agreements have faced criticism from lawyers and human rights organizations, who questioned their legal basis, especially since they involve migrants who have judicial protection in the United States preventing their return to their home countries due to security risks.<\/p>\n

Critics of the migrant deportation policy also pointed out that some receiving countries have poor human rights records, exacerbating concerns about the fate of deportees and their living conditions.<\/p>\n

Migration and asylum issues are among the most significant challenges facing the African continent in recent decades, not only due to their association with conflicts and instability but also because they represent one of the key points of interaction between Africa and the outside world, especially the United States and Britain.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has treated Africa as one of the primary targets in implementing deportation policies, taking advantage of the fragile security, economic, and political situations in receiving countries.<\/p>\n

This fragility has provided a pathway for the forced deportation of migrants or their reception in “safe third country” deals, despite the security, community, and human rights risks associated with these deals.<\/p>\n

Trump had previously pledged before taking office in his second term to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” as part of his administration’s efforts to export the burdens of asylum and migration abroad.<\/p>\n

Find more news and analyses on Africa<\/span> on the Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press. The Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone stated that the country has agreed to accept hundreds of migrants from West Africa who are being deported by the United States, in the latest agreement of this kind made by the administration of the American president in efforts to expedite deportation processes. Minister Timothy Kaba, in remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-5908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-policy","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"\nSierra Leone to Receive 300 Migrants Yearly - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone stated that the country has agreed to accept hundreds of migrants\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sierra Leone to Receive 300 Migrants Yearly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone stated that the country has agreed to accept hundreds of migrants\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Africa Press English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-16T22:44:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-16T23:45:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/05\/sm_1778975066.931953.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Sierra Leone to Receive 300 Migrants Yearly\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-16T22:44:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-16T23:45:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly\"},\"wordCount\":877,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/05\/sm_1778975066.931953.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/policy\/sierra-leone-to-receive-300-migrants-yearly\",\"name\":\"Sierra Leone to Receive 300 Migrants Yearly - 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