A controversial U.S. immigration policy that sends asylum seekers to third-party African nations is facing fresh scrutiny after a new group of deportees arrived in Sierra Leone this week, with legal advocates warning the practice directly undermines existing court-ordered protections and puts vulnerable migrants at grave risk of persecution.
Erica Reilly, an attorney representing one of the migrants who arrived Thursday, confirmed to the Associated Press that the flight marked the second such deportation to Sierra Leone in as many months. Last month, nine West African asylum seekers landed in the country under the same policy, and approximately 12 more joined them this week.
Sierra Leone is just one of at least nine African nations that have struck formal third-country deportation agreements with the U.S., alongside a number of Latin American and Caribbean states that have reached similar arrangements. Under the terms of Sierra Leone’s agreement, which is backed by a $1.5 million U.S. government grant, the West African nation only accepts citizens of other West African countries, serving strictly as a temporary transit point rather than a place of permanent resettlement. A monthly cap of 25 deportees and an annual limit of 300 have been placed on the program, though Sierra Leonean authorities have not disclosed how long the agreement will remain in effect.
Upon arrival in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, deportees receive a briefing pamphlet from Kenvah Solutions, a private contractor hired by the Sierra Leonean government to manage deportees’ accommodations, food, healthcare, and transfers to their home countries. The document explicitly labels Sierra Leone a “temporary transit location” and confirms that “no long-term settlement is provided for or permitted,” adding that local authorities and contractors are working to “return you home as quickly and safely as possible.” Neither Kenvah Solutions nor Sierra Leonean government officials responded to requests for comment from the AP.
Immigration advocates and legal representatives say the policy is a deliberate legacy of the Trump administration’s broad crackdown on irregular migration, which relies on often-unpublicized third-country deportation agreements to create a legal loophole. U.S. courts have issued formal orders barring the deportation of many of these asylum seekers directly back to their home countries, where judges have confirmed they face credible threats of persecution. By routing them through third-party nations like Sierra Leone, the U.S. effectively bypasses these protections.
Reilly, who is representing a Nigerian asylum seeker among the most recent group of deportees, explained that once migrants arrive in Sierra Leone, they have almost no power to block their forced transfer to the countries where they face danger. “They’re put in a position where they just don’t have a say at all,” Reilly said. She added that U.S. authorities are fully aware of the risk facing most deportees sent through this program, choosing instead to disavow responsibility for their fates once they leave U.S. soil. “Our government is just saying, ‘What happens to them after they leave the United States is not our problem,’” she said.
This is not the first challenge to the controversial policy. Earlier this month, human rights lawyers filed a legal case against Equatorial Guinea with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Africa’s top regional human rights body, accusing the central African nation of violating international human rights law by forcing U.S.-deported asylum seekers back to their unsafe home countries.