By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay and Sitta Turay
The Government of Sierra Leone has commented for the first time on the latest decision by the United States of America to deport a large number of undocumented migrants to their countries of origin.
Ambassador to the United States of America, Sidique Abou-Bakarr Wai, told Politico in a telephone interview that they were closely monitoring the situation.
“I am monitoring the situation and working through the mechanics with US Homeland Security to determine how to respond in any situation where Sierra Leoneans are involved,” he said.
Earlier, we spoke to senior sources in the ministry of Foreign Affairs in Freetown who said that they were still waiting to be officially informed by the US Embassy regarding the deportations.
“As far as we are concerned, nobody has informed us. Naturally they will write to us, but they haven’t.”
Several weeks ago Trump tweeted on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) plans to conduct the raids, before he then delayed the operation, saying he would wait if Republicans and Democrats can work out a deal for the Southern border.
It is not clear which citizens this mass exportation will target but it is believed to be targeted at countries in the Americas.
But Sierra Leoneans might be caught in the crossfire. Over the weekend US medium, Spectrum News reported that a Sierra Leonean has been detained by ICE and could be on his way to Sierra Leone. The man who was only mentioned as Baion was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has been living in US and has been married to a citizen for the last 33 years. But his visa has expired.
Head of Consular Services at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mohamed Wurie, said they don’t expect citizens to be deported if they haven’t been contacted.
“No deportation will come home without the two government agreeing on certain things,” Wurie said.
He added, “We have our embassy that identifies our citizens abroad. If it is true that they have arrested a Sierra Leonean, they must inform the Washington Office for clarification.”
Whiles the ministry is waiting for communication from US authorities there is no way to tell how many more Sierra Leoneans have been locked up by ICE and are getting ready for deportation.
A New York Times article last week said that the raids would be done over several days. It will also have collateral damage and undocumented migrants who are arrested on the scene of raids will also be deported.
The raids by US officials will focus on ten cities, three of which have a very high population of Sierra Leonean migrants; Baltimore, New York and Atlanta.
According to Spectrum News last week the Acting Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ken Cuccinelli said, “They’re absolutely going to happen. There’s approximately a million people in this country with removal orders. And of course, that isn’t what ICE will go after in this, but that’s the pool of people who have been all the way through the due process chain.”
Whiles the situation continues to develop, Baion’s life could be at risk. His wife told Spectrum News that he has a heart condition and he might not survive long if he is deported back to Sierra Leone.
“I just think it’s a death sentence, I don’t think he can survive,” says Baio’s wife. “Because the care he gets here at the hospital is tremendous, it’s really great you know get great care and he’s doing well as long as he’s taking his medicine he’s doing well you know but I don’t think he’ll be able to survive it over there.”
Sierra Leone doesn’t have clinics to deal with advance heart conditions. Bion has been in detention since Wednesday.
© 2019 Politico Online
