Burkina Faso said it has turned down multiple approaches from the United States to receive foreigners deported under President Donald Trump’s immigration drive, calling the proposal “unworthy and indecent.”
“Burkina Faso is not a land of deportation,” Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré told state television late Thursday, adding that the country’s openness—underscored by its recent decision to scrap visa fees for all Africans—should not be treated as a chance for “a third country to get rid of certain populations it considers undesirable.”
The United States has sought to expand removals to third countries as part of efforts to deport millions of people living in the U.S. without legal status. Ghana, Burkina Faso’s neighbor, said in September it would accept nationals from other West African states, while stressing this did not signal support for Trump’s policy and that Accra received no quid pro quo.
Relations between Burkina Faso’s military-led government, headed by Ibrahim Traoré after two coups in 2022, and Western partners have frayed as the junta has deepened ties with Russia.
The U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou said Friday it was pausing routine visa services and directed applicants to the embassy in Lomé, Togo, without giving a reason. The U.S. State Department did not immediately comment on whether Washington asked Burkina Faso to take third-country deportees. Traoré did not specify what, if anything, was offered in exchange.