Amnesty International on Friday urged Sierra Leone to halt the expected repatriation of three people deported from the United States, saying they could face serious human rights violations if returned to their home countries elsewhere in West Africa, Reuters reported from Dakar on October 23.
Source: Reuters via SRN News
The rights group named Abalo Agba of Togo, Alfred Kamara of Liberia and Fatou Traore of Ivory Coast. It said each had lived in the United States for more than 20 years when they were removed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Sierra Leone on October 12, and that they all have children under 18 still in the US.
Source: Amnesty International
Amnesty said the three had previously secured a form of protection in the US known as withholding of removal, meaning a US immigration judge found they were more likely than not to face torture or other abuses if forced home. In its October 23 urgent action (index AFR 51/1599/2026), Amnesty said eight people in total were removed to Sierra Leone on October 12 and called on Sierra Leone's authorities to stop any onward repatriation and allow access to fair asylum procedures and independent legal counsel.
Since taking office in January last year, the Trump administration has struck several deals with African governments that have agreed to accept migrants from other countries, Reuters reported. Sierra Leone reached an agreement with Washington to accept up to 300 West African third-country nationals annually. Amnesty said migrants previously deported under the deal had been quickly repatriated, and it criticised what it described as a “revolving door” policy of forcing people home.
A separate Sierra Leone civil-society coalition, the Human Rights Defenders Network Sierra Leone (HRDN-SL), said on October 14 that eight more deportees had arrived in Sierra Leone on October 13 under the Third Country National Agreement, including people from Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal and Togo, and that several had lived in the United States for more than 20 years and had been separated from partners and children after ICE detention.
Source: HRDN-SL
In the case of Fatou Traore, the US public-service union AFSCME said she cleans children's hospital rooms in Iowa City, is raising four US citizen sons with her husband, also a hospital custodian, and called for her to be released and returned to the United States. Those details are the union's account of her circumstances.
Source: AFSCME
A Sierra Leone government spokesperson and the US State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported. Whether Sierra Leone will halt the onward returns had not been announced when this story was queued.
For diaspora readers, the case shows how third-country deportation deals can move a long-time US resident to a country they are not from — and, rights groups say, then onward to the country a US judge had already ruled was unsafe for them. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if Sierra Leone or the US State Department responds.