Burkina Faso rejects proposal to accept deportees from the US

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Burkina Faso says it has refused a proposal from the Trump administration to accept deportees from the United States.

The West African country was asked whether it would accept non-citizens expelled by the U.S., in addition to its own nationals, Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said Thursday on national television.

“Naturally, this proposal, which we deemed indecent at the time, is totally contrary to the value of dignity which is part of the very essence of the vision of Capt. Ibrahim Traoré,” he said, referring to the country’s military ruler.

The remark came only a few hours after the U.S. Embassy in the capital Ouagadougou suspended most visa services for Burkina Faso residents, redirecting applications to its embassy in neighboring Togo. The embassy did not give a reason for the move.

Citing a U.S. diplomatic note accusing Burkinabe nationals of not complying with visa usage rules, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré called the move a possible “pressure tactic” and said, “Burkina Faso is a land of dignity, not deportation.”

The U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou and Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 40 deportees have been sent to Africa since July after the Trump administration struck largely secretive agreements with at least five African nations to take migrants under a new third-country deportation program. Rights groups and others have protested the program.

The U.S. has sent deportees to the small African nation of Eswatini, South Sudan, Rwanda and Ghana. It also has an agreement with Uganda, though no deportations there have been announced.

Six deportees are still detained in an unspecified facility in South Sudan, while Rwanda hasn’t said where it is holding seven deportees. Eleven of the 14 deportees sent to Ghana last month sued the government there for holding them in what they described as terrible conditions at a military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra.

Human Rights Watch said last month the Trump administration offered financial incentives to some African countries to accept deportees. The rights group said it reviewed written agreements showing Eswatini will receive $5.1 million in U.S. funding for migration and border management while Rwanda will receive $7.5 million.