Burkina Faso rejects ‘indecent’ US proposal to accept deportees: summary
What we know
- Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore told a national broadcaster on Thursday night, October 9 that Ouagadougou had refused multiple approaches by the Trump administration to accept third-country deportees.
- President Donald Trump aims to deport millions of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and his administration has sought to ramp up removals to third countries, including several in Africa.
- Since Burkina Faso's military-led government, headed by Ibrahim Traore, took power, relations between the country's authorities and Western powers have grown increasingly strained as the junta has grown closer to Russia.
- The U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou temporarily paused all routine visa services from Friday, October 10.
- Traore did not say what Burkina Faso might have received had it agreed to the proposal.
What they said
"Burkina Faso is not a land of deportation," Traore said, calling the request from the U.S. unworthy and indecent. Noting that Burkina Faso recently decided to lift visa fees for all Africans, he said the country's hospitality "should not be seen as an opportunity for a third country to get rid of certain populations that it considers undesirable."
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
