By Umaru Fofana<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“I know nobody here,” lamented the 55-year-old father of two.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Prince Latoya, 47, was on the same deportation flight and is in the same situation.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n