By Alpha Abu
Sierra Leone’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Nabeela Tunis, has said that her government will continue to engage its American counterpart in efforts to resolve the issue of US Visa sanction on the country due to a row over the delayed deportation of Sierra Leoneans from the US.
Tunis, who was addressing journalists at the Foreign Ministry in Freetown on Tuesday, said there were one thousand three hundred people in the US who have been issued with deportation orders, down from the initial number of one thousand six hundred. The other three hundred are still going through court hearings, she said.
The Foreign Minister noted that the Sierra Leone government has been trying to ensure thorough screening of the deportees, to establish their true identity and trace their relatives back home.
According to the Minister, Sierra Leone was not aversed to the entire process and has been largely compliant with the US government in that respect, with both parties having agreed that the exercise be done twice yearly. She said ever since the issue emerged, the government had instituted a series of measures, including the establishment of a committee comprising officials from the Office of National Security, Ministry of Social Welfare, and the Foreign Ministry itself, charged with the responsibility of verifying those people placed for deportation.
Tunis however admitted that the verification process will have to take some time as it had been seriously affected by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. She pointed out that the Consular offices and airports were closed, virtually impeding the government’s effort to address the deportation issue.
The US Embassy in Freetown on the 11th September this year released a statement announcing that it was discontinuing the issuing of Immigrant and Non-immigrant visas to Sierra Leonean citizens with exceptions to those covered by what the Embassy calls “US obligations or commitments under international agreements such as the UN Headquarters Agreement.”
The moved marked an extension of the sanction imposed since 2017, which targeted officials from the immigration department and Foreign Affairs ministry.
The US Embassy in Freetown in its statement acknowledged the efforts by the Sierra Leone government, but claimed that delays have occurred in the documentation process hence the decision for the extension of the sanction.
There are already concerns as to how the Sierra Leone Government will handle such an unprecedented large number of deportees and the kind of reintegration process they might have to go through.
In June last year scores of people were deported to Sierra Leone and two of them turned out to be non-Sierra Leoneans. The two men, who had Sierra Leone Emergency Travel Certificates, vehemently denied being nationals of this country, and claimed to have Caribbean roots; they have since remained stranded in the country, despite their protestations.
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