ICE, Trump and Africa: Secret deals, broken lives

For this edition of Reporters+, Karina Chabour has investigated a dark side of Donald Trump’s immigration policy. How ICE deports immigrants to so-called ‘third countries’ in Africa, far from the United States and often far from their countries of origin.

Most of the people deported have been living in the US for decades. They worked there, paid taxes and many even have families left behind. Without notice, they are arrested, detained and then deported to Ghana and Eswatini; countries they don’t know, where they have no relatives, no income or status.

Our reporter met individuals who now live in limbo: without papers, sometimes detained, at risk of being sent back to the very country they fled, many fearing for their lives.

The Deportation Project: behind the investigation on Trump administration’s mass deportations

As part of a consortium of 26 media outlets coordinated by Forbidden Stories, RFI and FRANCE 24 spent six months investigating the secret deals struck between the administration of US President Donald Trump and several African countries. These so-called “third countries” have agreed to host undocumented migrants detained by ICE and deported from the US.

From Ghana to Cameroon and Eswatini, our journalists spoke to the people deported to countries utterly unfamiliar to them. 

Lives in limbo and US pressure on African states

Behind the broken lives of the deported, the film reveals a dark system put in place by Washington. To secure agreements with African states, the US piles up pressure: political and financial deals, discreet bargaining, trade and tariff incentives.

“ICE, Trump and Africa – Secret deals, broken lives” shows us how the US is relocating deportations; how secret deals are being carried out by the Trump administration, using human lives as a negotiating tool.

With the collaboration of Caroline Dumay, Olivia Bizot, Simon Martin and Marine Pradel.

The Deportation Project: our full coverage

Deported to Africa: An international investigation into Trump’s migrant policy

‘Waiting for us to crack’: In Cameroon, the victims of Trump’s deportations face uncertain fates

Interactive map: Third-country removals - Trump’s deportation policy by the numbers

Reporters +: 'ICE, Trump and Africa - Secret deals, broken lives'

Scrollytelling: Flight to Ghana - Expelled From the US to a Country They’d Never Been to

‘I had never heard of Eswatini’: Deported to a country that rejects them