Sierra Leone Receives First Batch of U.S. Migrant Deportees

Sierra Leone has become the latest African nation to receive migrants deported from the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

A chartered plane carrying nine West African migrants landed near Freetown. The group included citizens from five countries: Ghana, two from Guinea, and one each from Nigeria and Senegal.

Foreign Minister Timothy Musa Kabba said that the country had agreed to accept up to 300 people a year expelled by the United States.

The U.S. has already sent deportees to several other African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and South Sudan.

Critics, including Human Rights Watch, have warned that deportations to third countries violate international human rights standards and put vulnerable migrants at risk.