The authorities have started repatriating 248 Sierra Leoneans stranded in a holding centre in Mali after they consented to return home, according to the Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning at the Immigrations Department, Abdul Karim Bangura.
They are 156 males and 92 females, including 64 children.
“There were even five babies” Bangura said.
Already, the first batch of 115 came in on Sunday, with the rest expected this week.
They are people who have embarked on botched attempts to make the perilous and illegal journey to Europe. They were “trapped along the Mediterranean Sea, picked up by security personnel and brought to holding centres in Niger and Mali” according to Bangura as quoted in an article by the State House Strategic Communications Coordinator, Festus Margai.
“They faced several challenges while trying to force their way to Europe. Some died as a result of beating, some ran out of money. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) set up holding centres and tried to identify their nationality,” Bangura is quoted as saying.
He said the IOM approached the government of Sierra Leone for a possible repatriation, adding that with the approval of the Chief Immigration Officer, Lieutenant (Rtd.) Andrew Jaiah Kaikai, “arrangements were quickly put in place and two officials from the Immigration Department departed Sierra Leone for Mali”.
He said IOM had already screened and placed the undocumented and irregular immigrants but that they currently had no travel documents from Sierra Leone. So they have sent emergency travel documents for them free of cost.
“Some of them told us that they sold everything they had in Sierra Leone including parcels of land, houses, etc., to embark on that dangerous journey” Bangura said, adding that they had tried to dissuade them from the perilous journey and return home.
© 2019 Politico Online
