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Sierra Leone Embassy in Turkiye has responded to allegations of neglecting its citizens.
The Embassy noted that its attention has been drawn to a malicious and misguided videotape of an unidentified person claiming that the Mission in Turkiye has not done anything towards the wellbeing of its citizens living in the country.
Addressing the concerns raised in the videotape, the Embassy made clarifications on the current status of all Sierra Leoneans living in Turkiye, which are highlighted below:
- “1. That His Excellency Ambassador Mohamed Hassan Kai-Samba has on several occasions engaged the Turkish authorities on the manner in which Sierra Leonean citizens are arrested, detained and treated. Even though these are not only geared towards Sierra Leoneans but other nationals that are illegally staying in this country .
- That the Turkish authorities informed the Sierra Leone Embassy in Ankara, Türkiye, that most of those in police custody have committed criminal offenses raging from drugs, holding fake passports ; and in many instances without Residence Permits to stay in the country.
- That the Turkish authorities asserted that almost all foreigners living in Turkiye are working without work permits . This has propelled the rampant arrests of defaulters.
- That the Sierra Leone Embassy in Ankara, Türkiye, has on numerous occasions dispatched senior officials to the various prisons across the country in search of its citizens. To the dismay of the embassy, many Sierra Leonean citizens in Turkiye are in possession of foreign passports, rather than the Sierra Leone Passport. They only make these alarms and claims to be Sierra Leoneans when they fall foul of the law.
It’s rather unfortunate that the author of the video in question has no clue of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular relations.
- As an embassy, we do not meddle into the immigration laws of the host country; therefore, we do not dictate how their rules or laws are applied. The best we can do is to advocate to the host country on maintaining the human rights of our nationals who have committed the respective alleged immigration crimes.”
The Mission conclusively apprised it nationals home and abroad of its continued commitment to ensuring the safety and security of all Sierra Leoneans in the Republic of Turkiye; including the expeditious release of those incarcerated and appealed to it nationals residing in Turkiye to be peaceful, whilst complying to its laws.
