Online Reporter
Burkina Faso says it has refused an “indecent” 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 US, in addition to its own nationals, Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said on Thursday on national television.
The remark came only a few hours after the US Embassy in the capital Ouagadougou suspended most visa services for Burkina Faso residents, redirecting applications to its embassy in neighbouring Togo.
The embassy did not give a reason for the move.
The US Embassy in Ouagadougou and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rights groups and others have protested against the programme.
The US 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 has not 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 US$5,1 million in US funding for migration and border management while Rwanda will receive US$7,5 million. — Wires
