US has deported 25,000 people to third countries under secretive deals: report

The US has deported more than 25,000 people under secretive agreements with 35 countries to take migrants with no ties to those nations, an investigation published yesterday said.

Since US President Donald Trump took office in January last year, Washington has been signing deals with developing countries to take migrants who cannot legally be sent home. The investigation by Forbidden Stories found the administration has earmarked US$410 million to be paid directly to the receiving countries or to UN agencies to facilitate the returns.

At least 25,447 people had already been deported to third countries by Aug. 31 this year, data compiled by Forbidden Stories with a consortium of international journalists showed.

A woman and a man, who have been caught up in US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which involves shipping people that the US cannot legally send home to “third countries,” shield their face with a mask as they pose for a photograph in Yaounde on Sept. 9.

Photo: AFP

The vast majority — about 20,000 — were sent to Mexico, but the rest were dispersed to 27 other countries across Latin America, Africa and the Pacific, and agreements have been finalized with seven more. The deals vary, including over which nationalities can be deported and whether people with criminal records can be accepted.

An AFP investigation earlier this year found Washington is using visa bans and restrictions on African countries to strong-arm them into accepting deportees.

Lawyers told AFP that deportees were being thrown into a “legal black hole,” held without charge in countries where they have no ties and few if any rights.

Forbidden Stories said 49 of Africa’s 54 countries had been approached about accepting third-country deportees.

A little-known US Department of State division called the Office of Remigration, created in May last year, has handled most of the negotiations and payments, it said.

The office is headed by Christian Jove Ehrhardt, a 41-year-old diplomat who previously worked as a security officer.

The report details his visits to Cameroon, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the US in December on accepting deportees. A week later, it also signed a five-year health assistance program worth nearly US$400 million.

The following month, the State Department said it would provide a further US$30 million to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Cameroon to “facilitate the voluntary return of refugees and combat illegal immigration.” The first plane carrying deportees arrived in Cameroon on Jan. 14.

Other agreements have involved direct payments to governments.

Palau, a small Pacific island nation with a population of under 18,000, signed an agreement in December last year to accept up to 75 third-country nationals in return for US$7.5 million.

However, only three people have so far been sent under the agreement. In Eswatini, 32 people have arrived since July last year out of a possible 160 under an agreement worth more than US$5 million. It has accepted deportees with criminal records, the investigation found.

Of the US$410 million planned for the agreements, internal State Department records showed that US$81 million was earmarked for signatory governments. The rest was intended for aid organizations, including more than US$178 million for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), and US$123 million for UNHCR.

The agencies have faced criticism over their involvement, although UNHCR told Forbidden Stories that it was not party to the bilateral agreements and that US funding was being used in line with its mandate to strengthen asylum systems.

An IOM spokesperson told Forbidden Stories that the agency’s decisions to accept funding rested “on a single question: whether our engagement will improve the lives of the migrants affected. In these instances, we believe strongly it does.”