Immigrants who had already won protection from being sent back to countries where they could face persecution, torture, or death were still forced out of the United States through a different route. Instead of returning some of them to the countries they fled, the Trump administration sent them to the Central African Republic — a country many had no ties to and some had never even visited.
The harm began before the flight left Louisiana. On June 11, 18 migrants were brought to Alexandria Airport handcuffed and shackled. Several said they were severely beaten. Two said that after refusing to board the ICE deportation flight, they were forced into full-body restraints. A U.S. official denied the beating allegations.
Some of the people on that flight did not even know where the government was taking them. One migrant said she discovered the destination only after seeing “Bangui, Central African Republic” on the screen in front of her seat and trying to figure out where it was. Others told reporters they had never set foot in Africa before. They were being forcibly removed to a country they had not chosen and did not know.
Once in the Central African Republic, the uncertainty did not end. Migrants described living with little electricity, heavy mosquito exposure, malaria, and fear about leaving where they were staying. Their visas were temporary, and they said they did not know what would happen when that period expired. Some remained terrified that they could ultimately be sent back to the countries they had fled in the first place.
That is what makes third-country deportation more than a change in destination. In cases like these, a protection order can block direct removal to a country where a person faces danger while still leaving the government another route: transfer to a different country willing to accept them. The legal protection remains tied to one destination, while the person can still be forcibly displaced somewhere else.
The arrangements behind those removals are largely hidden from the public. The transcript describes U.S. diplomats traveling to the Central African Republic shortly before the first deportation flight and notes a sharp increase in American funding connected to migration and humanitarian operations there: $85 million to IOM operations and another $50 million to the CAR Humanitarian Fund. The available record does not establish that those funds were direct payment for accepting deportees, but the timing and secrecy surrounding the agreements create a clear accountability question about how U.S. money and diplomatic leverage are being used to build this deportation system.
The Central African Republic is not an isolated destination. Fresher independent verification shows the Trump administration has entered into more than 35 third-country agreements and forcibly transferred more than 23,000 people to 26 third countries. The transcript also describes a system using tariffs, visa restrictions, economic investment, military and security aid, and humanitarian assistance to persuade governments to accept third-country nationals.
The larger accountability question is no longer whether this is happening. It is how far the system has spread, who negotiated the agreements, what leverage or funding was used to secure them, and what responsibility the United States accepts after forcing people into countries they never chose and may not be safe in. For immigrants who already won protection from return to persecution or torture, third-country deportation creates a government-built route around the safety they fought to secure in U.S. courts.
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Sources: Democracy Now!, CNN, Human Rights First, Refugees International, U.S. Department of State.
