Sierra Leone’s foreign minister says the country has agreed to take in hundreds of West Africans deported by the United States. The arrangement is described as a Third Country National Agreement between Sierra Leone and the U.S., under which Sierra Leone will accept people who are citizens of ECOWAS member states and are removed from the United States.
According to the reports, the agreement covers the admission of about 300 ECOWAS citizens per year. Both outlets frame the decision as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to accelerate deportations. The sources do not provide additional details on the specific deportation processes, timelines beyond the annual figure, or which countries within ECOWAS are most affected.
The agreements also highlight a regional resettlement mechanism in which a third country takes migrants removed from the U.S., rather than returning them directly to their countries of origin. The announcements are presented as an official statement by Sierra Leone’s minister and as a new step in ongoing U.S.–Sierra Leone migration cooperation.
