US Ramps Up Third-Country Deportations Despite Global Pushback
Theo Umar Farooq và Alia Chughtai, Al Jazeera English
US immigration authorities have sharply expanded arrests and deportations since January 2025, sending tens of thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers to third countries with which they have no ties. Human rights groups and the UN say the practice risks a chain of rights violations, while US courts and the Supreme Court have split over its legality.
US immigration agencies have sharply escalated arrests and deportations since January 2025, when Donald Trump became president. Trump had promised "the largest deportation operation in American history." Personnel at the Department of Homeland Security — the agency overseeing the campaign — now carry out thousands of arrests every day across the country.
Those targeted include people seeking asylum in the United States, who are supposed to have a chance to explain the dangers they could face back home. US law and international treaties such as the UN Convention Against Torture prohibit authorities from deporting a person to any country where they would face persecution or torture.
Many people detained under the immigration crackdown say they risk harm or death if returned to their home countries, so the Trump administration has sought alternative destinations for deportation, including places where they have no cultural or legal ties.
The practice, known as "third-country deportation," has drawn criticism inside the US and from global human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the United Nations.
Opponents argue that some receiving countries have records of human rights violations, or are so dangerous that the US government advises its own citizens not to travel there. They also say there are few guarantees that these third countries will give deportees a fair hearing on their asylum claims, and that they may ultimately send them back home to face persecution.
Third-country deportation is not new, but according to human rights groups it was extremely rare before the Trump administration and had never been used by the US on the current scale. Human rights groups say people sent to another country should not be deported without their consent.
Several US courts have ruled the practice illegal, but the US Supreme Court has allowed it to continue, including in a September ruling.
Experts at the United Nations say the practice is producing "a chain of human rights violations" around the world, threatening to roll back norms on how refugees and asylum seekers are treated.
A closer look at third-country deportations
Human rights groups have tried to tally forced third-country deportations. According to the two nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First, based on media reports and information from lawyers, more than 25,000 people have been forcibly deported to third countries so far.
Department of Homeland Security data covers more than 16,000 third-country deportation cases from Trump's inauguration in January 2025 through August 2026, the most recent month for which data is available. The data, provided to the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles, and analyzed by Al Jazeera, is likely still an undercount.
Deportations to these countries require approval from local authorities, so the Trump administration has sought agreements or informal understandings to send deportees to a growing list of nations.
Some countries have agreed to hold deportees in prisons, such as El Salvador and Eswatini. Others have agreed to temporary detention, with some signing Asylum Cooperation Agreements with the US — also known as "Safe Third Country Agreements" — allowing deportees to pursue asylum claims in a third country that has agreed to take them.
According to Refugees International and Human Rights First, many deportees do not know where they will be sent, and end up in countries whose language they do not speak and whose culture they barely know. Some even lack documents such as passports or ID cards, making life there difficult.
The list of countries receiving deportees has grown as the US offers financial aid, or concessions on business or visas, in exchange for nations accepting third-country nationals the Trump administration wants to remove.
Liberia has agreed to take up to 1,200 deportees. The Trump administration had said it would extend the validity of some visas for Liberians from 12 months to 36 months, and pledged $124 million for the country's health services.
In Cameroon, which agreed in December 2025 to accept third-country nationals from the US, the Trump administration pledged $30 million for UN refugee operations there and $400 million in coming years for the country's health services.
