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United States deported about a dozen court-protected asylum seekers to Sierra Leone on second third-country flight

On June 18, 2026, about a dozen asylum seekers deported by the United States arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the second U.S. deportation flight to the country under a third-country removal agreement. According to an attorney for one deportee and documents reviewed by the Associated Press, the migrants held U.S. court orders barring their removal to their home countries after judges found they faced credible fears of persecution. A briefing pamphlet distributed on arrival by a private contractor describes Sierra Leone as a "temporary transit location" where deportees are to be moved onward within 14 to 30 days, raising the prospect of return to the countries U.S. courts barred.

Part of: Trump Administration Third-Country Deportation Program

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
United States; destination Freetown, Sierra Leone

Abuses documented

Actors

About a dozen asylum seekers deported by the United States arrived at Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Thursday, June 18, 2026 — the second U.S. deportation flight to the country under the Trump administration's third-country deportation program, following an initial flight in May that brought nine West African migrants. According to Erica Reilly, an attorney representing a Nigerian man among those deported, and documents reviewed by the Associated Press, the migrants held U.S. court orders barring their removal to their home countries after immigration judges found they faced credible fears of persecution. Reilly said the deportees "just don't have a say at all" once they are moved out of U.S. custody.

The removals were carried out under an agreement the U.S. Department of State negotiated with Sierra Leone, which Sierra Leone's foreign minister, Timothy Kabba, has said is backed by a $1.5 million U.S. grant and capped at 25 deportees per month and 300 per year. A briefing pamphlet distributed to the arrivals in Freetown by Kenvah Solutions, a private contractor hired by the Sierra Leonean government to handle accommodation, food, healthcare, and transfer, describes the country as a "temporary transit location" where "no long-term settlement is provided for or permitted" and states that authorities are working to "return you home as quickly and safely as possible," with deportees expected to be moved onward within 14 days, or up to 30 in exceptional cases.

Immigration lawyers describe third-country deportation as a route used to indirectly return asylum seekers to the home countries that U.S. courts had ordered they not be sent to, because the destination country is not itself covered by the individual removal bars. The Human Rights Defenders Network-Sierra Leone warned that the arrangement could violate the principle of non-refoulement under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the U.N. Convention against Torture, and called on the government to disclose the full terms of the deal. Sierra Leone is one of at least nine African nations, alongside several Latin American and Caribbean countries, to enter such agreements under the administration's broader immigration crackdown; a February report from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats found more than $32 million had already been distributed to participating countries.

Why we recorded this

Due process requires that people facing removal receive the procedural protections the law guarantees, including court orders that bar deportation to countries where a judge has found they face persecution. Here the government routed asylum seekers who held such orders to a third country that documents itself as a short-term transit point before onward return, using the third-country arrangement to reach an outcome the courts had barred. This archive records when removal is carried out in ways that bypass those protections and hollow out the force of a court's ruling.

Sources

  1. Second Batch of U.S. Deportees Arrive in Sierra Leone — Sierraloaded investigative accessed July 5, 2026
  2. Migrants deported by U.S. to Sierra Leone risk return to countries where they fear persecution — The Washington Times (Associated Press wire) investigative accessed July 5, 2026

See also