US deportees in Sierra Leone fear forced return despite court protections

Freetown,UPDATED: Jun 20, 2026 12:50 IST

Asylum seekers deported by the United States to Sierra Leone risk being sent back to their home countries, where they could face persecution, according to one of their lawyers and documents seen by The Associated Press. This is despite earlier US court orders that barred their deportation to those countries.

About a dozen people deported from the US arrived in Sierra Leone on Thursday, according to Erica Reilly, a lawyer representing one of the migrants. It was the second deportation flight to the West African country after nine West African migrants landed there last month. Sierra Leone is among at least nine African countries that have entered into third-country deportation deals with the US, while several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have also reached similar agreements.

A briefing pamphlet that lawyers said was given to the migrants after they arrived in Freetown said the government and contractors were working to “return you home as quickly and safely as possible”. The pamphlet, seen by AP, was distributed by Kenvah Solutions, a private contractor that the Sierra Leone government said it had hired to manage the deportees’ accommodation, food, healthcare and transfer.

The pamphlet described Sierra Leone as a “temporary transit location” and said “no long-term settlement is provided for or permitted”. Kenvah Solutions and Sierra Leonean authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Advocates say that under a series of often secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their own as part of a wider immigration crackdown. Immigration lawyers said the administration was using third-country deportations as a legal loophole to indirectly send asylum seekers back to their home countries. Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba said last month that the agreement with the Trump administration was backed by a USD 1.5 million grant from the US government. The programme is capped at 25 deportees a month and 300 a year, according to the ministry, which did not say how long the arrangement would last. Authorities have said Sierra Leone is only taking citizens of West African countries.

Reilly, who represents a Nigerian man among those deported on Thursday, said the migrants had legal protection from US courts against deportation to their home countries after judges found they had credible fears of persecution. “They’re put in a position where they just don’t have a say at all,” Reilly said.

Earlier this month, rights lawyers filed a case against Equatorial Guinea before Africa’s top human rights body, accusing the country of forcing deportees from the US back to their home countries in violation of their rights. Reilly said, “The US government knows exactly what’s going to happen in the vast majority of these situations. Our government is just saying, What happens to them after they leave the United States is not our problem.” The latest arrivals in Sierra Leone have added to concerns that people protected by US court orders could still end up being sent back to the countries they fled.

With PTI Inputs

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