US Deports Iranian, Afghan Migrants, Others To Conflict-Hit Central African Republic
US Deports Iranian, Afghan Migrants, Others To Conflict-Hit Central African Republic
According to AFP, a deportation flight carrying the migrants departed Alexandria, Louisiana, on Thursday evening and was headed for the Central African Republic on Friday after making a scheduled stop in Ghana.
The United States has deported a group of migrants, including nationals of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Georgia, to the conflict-ridden Central African Republic (CAR).
According to AFP, a deportation flight carrying the migrants departed Alexandria, Louisiana, on Thursday evening and was headed for the Central African Republic on Friday after making a scheduled stop in Ghana.
Lawyers familiar with the case said many of those on board had previously been granted legal protections in the United States, including “withholding of removal,” a status issued by immigration courts to individuals deemed likely to face persecution or danger if returned to their home countries.
Among those deported were at least two Iranian women who had fled Iran and secured withholding-of-removal protections in the United States.
Their attorney, Emily Trostle, expressed concern that the deportees could ultimately be forced back to the countries they originally fled.
“We fear they will ultimately be forced to return to the countries they originally fled,” Trostle said, noting that similar outcomes have occurred in previous deportation cases involving African transit countries.
The Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest and most unstable nations, is currently under a US State Department travel advisory warning Americans not to travel there “for any reason” due to insecurity and violence.
Alma David, a US immigration lawyer familiar with the deportation operation, said the group being sent to CAR consisted largely of individuals with withholding-of-removal protections from countries including Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Georgia.
The Trump administration has increasingly relied on third-country deportations as part of its aggressive immigration enforcement strategy, expanding both the categories of migrants targeted for removal and the destinations to which they can be sent.
Officials have argued that federal protections only prevent migrants from being returned directly to their countries of origin, allowing authorities to deport them to other nations willing to accept them.
Human rights advocates, however, say the policy effectively abandons vulnerable migrants in countries where they have no legal status, family ties or support systems.
“These individuals are being removed from the United States and abandoned in a country where they have no status, no connection and no support network,” Trostle said.
Reports from previous third-country deportations have documented allegations of unsanitary detention conditions in Ghana and prolonged detention in Eswatini.
Some deportees transferred through Ghana and Equatorial Guinea were later sent back to countries where US immigration courts had previously ruled they could face harm.
It remains unclear what will happen to the deportees upon arrival in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Neither the Central African government nor the US State Department immediately responded to requests for comment.
The reported deportation arrangement appears to be the first known agreement between Washington and Bangui under a broader network of migration deals the Trump administration has pursued across Africa and other regions.
Although security conditions in the Central African Republic have improved in recent years with support from United Nations peacekeepers, Rwandan troops and Russian Wagner-linked mercenaries, armed groups and anti-government fighters continue to operate across large parts of the mineral-rich nation.
The deportation comes amid growing legal challenges to the Trump administration’s third-country removal policy.
Last week, a lawsuit was filed before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights seeking to halt US deportations to Equatorial Guinea and prevent onward deportations of migrants to countries where they may face persecution or danger.
