Freetown welcomes first US deportation flight under Trump crackdown

Freetown has received its first group of migrants deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s expanded immigration crackdown. According to reports, a plane carrying nine West African deportees landed at Freetown International Airport on Wednesday as part of a new agreement between the US and Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister, Timothy Musa Kabba, said the country has agreed to accept up to 300 deportees annually from ECOWAS member states under what officials describe as a “Third Country National Agreement” with Washington. The deportees reportedly came from Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, and Senegal.

Health officials in Sierra Leone said many of the deportees appeared traumatised after spending months in detention in the United States, with some allegedly held in chains. Authorities said the migrants would temporarily stay in Sierra Leone before eventually returning to their home countries.

The agreement is part of a broader US strategy of arranging deportation deals with several African countries to speed up removals of migrants and asylum seekers. Similar arrangements have reportedly been made with countries including Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Rwanda, and Equatorial Guinea.

Human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have criticised the arrangements, describing them as opaque and warning that they may violate international protections for migrants and asylum seekers.