Expelled from the US and now in limbo in Sierra Leone
Published: 8/Mar/2020
Source: BBC News
By Umaru Fofana
Saren Idaho said he has no connection to Sierra Leone and had never been to the country until he was deported there from the US six months ago.
“I know nobody here,” lamented the 55-year-old father of two.
Looking unwell and struggling to walk, he sat down on a plastic chair in his sparsely furnished hotel room in the capital, Freetown. As he was talking he played with a pack of cigarettes and several butts were squashed in an ashtray beside him.
At least this was better than the crowded police cell, where he slept on the floor “with cockroaches, rats and bed bugs” for the first five months of his time here.
Prince Latoya, 47, was on the same deportation flight and is in the same situation.
Both men, who had never met before coming to Sierra Leone, were long-term residents of the US. But they say they were originally from the Caribbean, which the US authorities dispute.
Read further: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-51585330