Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, an official from an international organisation, verified by the GDP, reported that in Sierra Leone, immigration detainees had not been released from detention and have not been tested for Covid-19. In addition, the source mentioned that the IOM assisted voluntary return and reintegration program had been suspended […]
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International Treaties Ratified
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CTOCSP, Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
2014
2017
CTOCTP, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
2014
2017
CAT, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
2001
2017
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Ratio: 12/19
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Committee on the Rights of the Child
§ 42. "The Committee recommends that the State party, in order to further strengthen the fulfilment of children’s rights, consider ratifying the core human rights instruments to which it is not yet a party, namely the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."
2016
2016
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COVID-19
Country Updates
Responding to the Global Detention Project’s Covid-19 survey, an official from an international organisation, verified by the GDP, reported that in Sierra Leone, immigration detainees had not been released from detention and have not been tested for Covid-19. In addition, the source mentioned that the IOM assisted voluntary return and reintegration program had been suspended for the time being, and so no returns were conducted. However, the country’s international airport reopened commercial flights on 22 July. All Africa reported that in preparing for re-opening the airport, the aviation sector, public health authorities, and partners, such as WHO and IOM, are working closely to mitigate the risk of transmission of Covid-19 among passengers as well as staff and service providers at the facility. The country has not implemented policy changes, but the official said that migrants had been stopped from entering the country at the borders.
According to a mid-April UNHCR report on West & Central Africa, due to Covid-19, Sierra Leone has closed its borders but persons still have access to asylum registration. While freedom of movement has been suspended in the country, persons of concern to the UNHCR reportedly have access to health services.
As regards the country’s prisons, on 17 June, authorities reported that 30 detainees contracted the disease at the Pademba Road prison after the arrival of a new prisoner. Prisoners were reportedly left without adequate water supply for 10 days in June which meant that they could not wash their hands or flush toilets. Prisoners were forced to urinate and defecate inside cell toilets and then forced to sleep in those cells without fresh air. At the end of April, a riot broke out in Pademba Prison and 7 persons died, including 5 prisoners and 2 staff members. Authorities have described the riot as an escape attempt. Le Figaro reported that the riot broke out after the announcement by the Minister of Justice that one of the prisons’ detainees had tested positive for Covid-19.
