Burkina Faso’s military-led government has rejected a proposal by the United States to receive migrants deported from American soil, dismissing the move as unacceptable interference in the country’s internal affairs.
The decision marks a clear rebuff to one of President Donald Trump’s renewed migration policies, which seeks to relocate undocumented migrants to third countries — even those with which they have no prior ties — as part of a broader immigration crackdown.
In Africa, Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan have all accepted people expelled from the United States in recent months.
But late on Thursday, Burkina Faso’s foreign affairs minister said the West African country had refused Washington’s overtures.
“Naturally, this proposal, which we considered indecent at the time, runs completely contrary to the principle of dignity,” Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said on national television.
Hours earlier, the US embassy in the capital Ouagadougou, announced the suspension of regular services for most visas for people living in Burkina Faso.
Instead, Burkinabe citizens will now have their services handled in Lome, the capital of neighbouring Togo.
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“Is this a way to put pressure on us? Is this blackmail? Whatever it is… Burkina Faso is a place of dignity, a destination, not a place of expulsion,” Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said.
Burkina Faso’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, styles himself as an anti-imperialist Pan-African strongman.
Since seizing power in a coup in September 2022, he has shunned former colonial master France and the wider West, forging closer ties with Russia instead.