Burkina Faso has refused to accept migrants deported from the United States, describing Washington’s request as “indecent” and an affront to the country’s dignity.
The decision marks a direct rebuke of President Donald Trump’s renewed migration policy, which seeks to deport people to third countries — sometimes nations they have no prior connection with — as part of a broader immigration crackdown.
While several African nations, including Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda, and South Sudan, have recently agreed to accept deportees from the U.S., Burkina Faso has taken a firm stance against the move.
Speaking on national television late Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said the junta-led West African nation would not participate in the arrangement.
“Naturally, this proposal, which we considered indecent at the time, runs completely contrary to the principle of dignity,” Traoré declared.
Hours earlier, the U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou announced a suspension of regular visa services for most applicants from Burkina Faso, directing citizens to seek consular assistance in Lomé, Togo instead.
Reacting to the development, Traoré accused Washington of using diplomatic pressure tactics.
“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,” he said.
Burkina Faso’s leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has maintained an anti-Western, Pan-African stance since seizing power in a September 2022 coup. His government has distanced itself from France and other Western allies, while forging closer ties with Russia.
The rejection of the U.S. deportation plan is seen as the latest move in the country’s ongoing shift toward a more independent — and defiantly anti-imperialist — foreign policy.
