By Hajaratu Kalokoh
The Sierra Leone Police (SLP) has confirmed the deportation of 16 Sierra Leoneans from the United States and said they are investigating two of them believed to be non-Sierra Leoneans in possession of the country’s passport.
The deportees who arrived in the country on Wednesday August 14, are part of hundreds of foreign nationals being flown out of the US as part of the Trump Administration’s clampdown on illegal migrants.
On the same day the Sierra Leonean deportees arrived Freetown, Liberian authorities also received 26 of their nationals deported under similar circumstances.
The SLP told journalists on Friday that a combined team of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Immigration personnel were at the Freetown International Airport in Lungi to receive the deportees who flew in onboard a chartered flight. They were driven straightway to the CID headquarters for processing.
“When they were screened by us at CID, our findings show that 14 were Sierra Leoneans and two were foreign nationals, one from Bahamas and one from Dominican,” Detective Superintendent Mohamed Kuba Allie, Supervisor Violent Crimes at the CID, told journalists in a press conference convened at Police Headquarters in Freetown. He said two of the deportees were females.
According to the police, the deportees were found wanting by the US officials for various crimes, ranging from identity theft, to cyber fraud, aggravated battery on persons, and driving under the influence of alcohol. They were deported after serving their sentences.
The Sierra Leonean deportees were subsequently handed over to their relations on condition that they should be reporting daily at the CID headquarters, according to the police who added that the two suspected foreign nationals were helping police and immigration investigators to ascertain how they had access to Sierra Leone passports.
The police say if any of them are found to be a non-citizen of Sierra Leone they would be deported to their actual country.
The SLP also said they were expecting more deportees in the next few weeks.
© 2019 Politico Online
