DAKAR: Burkina Faso says it has refused a proposal from the Trump administration to accept deportees from the United States.
The West African country was asked whether it would accept non-citizens expelled by the US, in addition to its own nationals, Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said Thursday on national television.
“Naturally, this proposal, which we deemed indecent at the time, is totally contrary to the value of dignity which is part of the very essence of the vision of Capt. Ibrahim Traoré,” he said, referring to the country’s military ruler.
The remark came only a few hours after the US Embassy in the capital Ouagadougou suspended most visa services for Burkina Faso residents, redirecting applications to its embassy in neighboring Togo. The embassy did not give a reason for the move.
Citing a US diplomatic note accusing Burkinabe nationals of not complying with visa usage rules, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré called the move a possible “pressure tactic” and said, “Burkina Faso is a land of dignity, not deportation.”
The US Embassy in Ouagadougou and Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 40 deportees have been sent to Africa since July after the Trump administration struck largely secretive agreements with at least five African nations to take migrants under a new third-country deportation program. Rights groups and others have protested the program.
The US has sent deportees to the small African nation of Eswatini, South Sudan, Rwanda and Ghana. It also has an agreement with Uganda, though no deportations there have been announced.
Six deportees are still detained in an unspecified facility in South Sudan, while Rwanda hasn’t said where it is holding seven deportees. Eleven of the 14 deportees sent to Ghana last month sued the government there for holding them in what they described as terrible conditions at a military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra.
Human Rights Watch said last month the Trump administration offered financial incentives to some African countries to accept deportees. The rights group said it reviewed written agreements showing Eswatini will receive $5.1 million in US funding for migration and border management while Rwanda will receive $7.5 million.
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Burkina Faso rejects proposal to accept deportees from the US
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Burkina Faso rejects proposal to accept deportees from the US
- Citing a US diplomatic note accusing Burkinabe nationals of not complying with visa usage rules, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré called the move a possible “pressure tactic” and said, “Burkina Faso is a land of dignity, not deportation”
China to halt Japan seafood imports amid Taiwan spat: reports
TOKYO: China will suspend Japanese seafood imports, media in Tokyo reported Wednesday as a row sparked by comments about Taiwan deepens, although neither government confirmed the move.
The uneasy neighbors’ most serious spat since 2012 was triggered by new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting on November 7 that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has been furious, summoning Tokyo’s ambassador and advising its citizens against travel to Japan.
The release of at least two Japanese movies will also be postponed in China, according to state media.
Reporting the suspension of seafood imports, Japanese media, including public broadcaster NHK, cited unnamed government sources.
China explained the move as necessary to monitor treated wastewater being released from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, NHK said.
China had only recently resumed purchasing some marine products from Japan following an earlier ban imposed after the Fukushima operation began in 2023.
The UN atomic agency said the release of the equivalent of 540 Olympic pools’ worth of cooling water collected since a tsunami crippled the facility in 2011 was safe.
But Beijing has accused Japan of treating the Pacific as a “sewer.”
Beijing’s foreign ministry did not confirm the latest reported suspension when asked on Wednesday.
Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference: “Under the current circumstances, even if Japanese seafood were exported to China, there would not be a market.”
Japanese government spokesman Minaru Kihara also said there had been “no notifications from the Chinese side on this.”
“It is important to follow through on the understanding shared between Japan and China in September last year (about seafood),” Kihara told reporters.
In 2023, seafood shipments to mainland China accounted for 15.6 percent of a total of 390 billion yen ($2.5 billion), down from 22.5 percent in 2022.
Hong Kong accounted for 26.1 percent, and the United States accounted for 15.7 percent in 2023.
- ‘Strong protest’ -
Key trading partners, China and Japan have seen ties frayed by territorial rivalries and military spending in recent years.
China is the biggest source of tourists to Japan, with almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025.
One analyst estimated that Chinese travelers have canceled around half a million air tickets in recent days.
“Recently, 90 percent of our customers (going to Japan) have asked for refunds,” Wu Weiguo, 48, a manager at a Shanghai travel agency, told AFP.
“I think relations will be able to improve, as long as Japan can tone down their rhetoric... After all, there are a lot of Chinese people currently in Japan, including my cousin, who is married to someone there,” said his colleague Zhou Pei, 47.
Japan on Monday urged its citizens in China to be careful of their surroundings and to avoid big crowds.
Beijing on Tuesday vowed to “protect the safety” of foreigners in China, but said it had again lodged a “strong protest” with Tokyo over Takaichi’s comments.
Seeking to defuse the row, the top official in Japan’s foreign ministry for Asia-Pacific affairs, Masaaki Kanai, held talks Tuesday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong.
“During the consultations, China once again lodged a strong protest with Japan” over “Takaichi’s erroneous remarks,” said Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
“Takaichi’s fallacies seriously violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations,” Mao said, adding the premier’s comments “fundamentally damage the political foundation of China-Japan relations.”
The uneasy neighbors’ most serious spat since 2012 was triggered by new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting on November 7 that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has been furious, summoning Tokyo’s ambassador and advising its citizens against travel to Japan.
The release of at least two Japanese movies will also be postponed in China, according to state media.
Reporting the suspension of seafood imports, Japanese media, including public broadcaster NHK, cited unnamed government sources.
China explained the move as necessary to monitor treated wastewater being released from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, NHK said.
China had only recently resumed purchasing some marine products from Japan following an earlier ban imposed after the Fukushima operation began in 2023.
The UN atomic agency said the release of the equivalent of 540 Olympic pools’ worth of cooling water collected since a tsunami crippled the facility in 2011 was safe.
But Beijing has accused Japan of treating the Pacific as a “sewer.”
Beijing’s foreign ministry did not confirm the latest reported suspension when asked on Wednesday.
Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference: “Under the current circumstances, even if Japanese seafood were exported to China, there would not be a market.”
Japanese government spokesman Minaru Kihara also said there had been “no notifications from the Chinese side on this.”
“It is important to follow through on the understanding shared between Japan and China in September last year (about seafood),” Kihara told reporters.
In 2023, seafood shipments to mainland China accounted for 15.6 percent of a total of 390 billion yen ($2.5 billion), down from 22.5 percent in 2022.
Hong Kong accounted for 26.1 percent, and the United States accounted for 15.7 percent in 2023.
- ‘Strong protest’ -
Key trading partners, China and Japan have seen ties frayed by territorial rivalries and military spending in recent years.
China is the biggest source of tourists to Japan, with almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025.
One analyst estimated that Chinese travelers have canceled around half a million air tickets in recent days.
“Recently, 90 percent of our customers (going to Japan) have asked for refunds,” Wu Weiguo, 48, a manager at a Shanghai travel agency, told AFP.
“I think relations will be able to improve, as long as Japan can tone down their rhetoric... After all, there are a lot of Chinese people currently in Japan, including my cousin, who is married to someone there,” said his colleague Zhou Pei, 47.
Japan on Monday urged its citizens in China to be careful of their surroundings and to avoid big crowds.
Beijing on Tuesday vowed to “protect the safety” of foreigners in China, but said it had again lodged a “strong protest” with Tokyo over Takaichi’s comments.
Seeking to defuse the row, the top official in Japan’s foreign ministry for Asia-Pacific affairs, Masaaki Kanai, held talks Tuesday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong.
“During the consultations, China once again lodged a strong protest with Japan” over “Takaichi’s erroneous remarks,” said Beijing’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
“Takaichi’s fallacies seriously violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations,” Mao said, adding the premier’s comments “fundamentally damage the political foundation of China-Japan relations.”
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