Trump Seeks Deal With African Leaders on Deported Migrants

President Donald Trump’s administration discussed sending deported migrants to Africa with five of the continent’s leaders holding a summit with the US President in Washington.

The topic, one of Trump’s top priorities since returning to the White House in January, was shared with the leaders from Gabon, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Liberia.

“What the Americans are saying is that they have asylum seekers that have been there for years, and that, they’d like for those that have been causing problems to be sent out of the country elsewhere,” Liberian President Joseph Boakai told Monrovia-based FrontPage Africa in an interview monitored by Bloomberg. “They’re not forcing anybody, but they want us to know that this is the concern they have, and they are asking how can we contribute, how can we help?” 

The talks come barely a week after the US’s highest court ruled in the Trump administration’s favor and cleared the way to remove eight migrants held in Djibouti from nations including Myanmar, Sudan, Mexico, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba to South Sudan.

A political dispute in South Sudan, which could degenerate into a civil war is the major concern about the choice of this destination. That could be urging the US government to view the five central and West African nations as a better alternative, considering that currently all are being run under relatively stable democracies.

The five African heads of state assured their US partner that “for the relationship, it’s an equal concern but it’s something we have to think about,” Boakai said. “If and when they begin to ask, we will know how to respond to it,” he said.

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This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.