The first plane carrying nine migrants from West African countries has arrived in Sierra Leone from the United States, making it the latest African nation to receive individuals expelled under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The flight landed at an airport near the capital, Freetown, on Wednesday.

According to a statement from Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, the group includes five people from Ghana, two from Guinea, one from Senegal, and one from Nigeria. All were “traumatised due to the months in chains during detention in the US,” said Doris Bah, a health ministry official at the scene, adding that most want to return to their home countries.

“Some of the deportees were arrested on the streets and their place of work, while another was arrested while playing football in the US,” Bah said. They will be housed in a hotel and are expected to return to their countries within two weeks at the latest.

Foreign Minister Timothy Musa Kabba told media on Wednesday that the government has agreed to host the migrants for about 90 days before their onward journey, with the deal backed by a $1.5 million grant from the US regime “to cover the humanitarian and operational costs linked to this agreement.”

The US regime has struck similar third-country deportation deals with at least eight other African nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Cameroon. Freetown has not disclosed whether other concessions were agreed upon.

Human Rights Watch, urging African nations to reject such arrangements, argued in September that the “opaque deals” were “part of a US policy approach that violated international human rights law.”

Source: www.aljazeera.com