NGOZI, Burundi — NGOZI, Burundi (AP) — Burundi has agreed to simply accept individuals deported by america who don’t have any earlier connection to the East African nation, a spokesperson for the nation’s president mentioned Tuesday.

Nancy Ninette Mutoni mentioned Burundi would settle for solely individuals who weren’t going through prosecution and had no hyperlinks to terrorism. She spoke throughout an occasion attended by authorities officers in Ngozi.

Mutoni didn’t say when the deportees would arrive or how many individuals Burundi had agreed to obtain. She mentioned preparations had been underway to offer lodging and assist the deportees stay in native communities.

“Receiving them requires critical planning — the place they may keep, what they may eat and the way they may stay alongside the native inhabitants,” Mutoni mentioned.

The Trump administration has expanded third-country deportations as a part of its immigration crackdown, sending individuals to nations the place they aren’t residents and will by no means have lived. America has despatched deportees to a number of African nations, together with Eswatini and South Sudan.

A U.S. appeals courtroom ruling final week threw this system into query. Legal professionals for immigrants mentioned a flight carrying about 70 individuals had been scheduled to journey from Louisiana to Burundi, Rwanda and the Central African Republic however was canceled.

The ruling didn’t prohibit third-country deportations however required that individuals going through elimination have a significant alternative to boost issues about attainable persecution or torture. The Trump administration has defended the coverage as mandatory when deportees’ house nations refuse to simply accept them.