“An ICE agent told me to sign for deportation to Chad. I refused . . . The ICE agent said, ‘I don’t care, I’m going to sign it myself.’ . . . I said, ‘I’m going to talk to my lawyer,’ but he said, ‘It’s too late.’ . . . I don’t know what happened, maybe later they changed their minds, because we ended up in Cameroon. . . . Even before we got on the plane, we asked where we were going, and they told us, ‘You’ll find out when you arrive.’” – Tesfay T., 35, an Ethiopian man deported to Cameroon.
The United States has sent more than 500 people whom it cannot deport to their own countries, because of the danger they would face there, to various countries in Africa where they have no connections, without giving them a meaningful chance to contest their removals to these countries.Some of the people have been detained upon arrival. Many, if not most, have been left with no practical option but to return to their home countries regardless of the harm they face there.The United States should stop deporting asylum seekers and refugees to third countries that lack the capacity to provide full and fair asylum procedures, and these countries should refuse to receive people under these conditions.
(Washington, DC) – The Trump administration is sending hundreds of people who can’t be deported to their own countries, because of the danger they would face, to African countries where they have no connections, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Many have been left with no practical option but to return to their home countries regardless of the harm they face there.
October 8, 2026 “To Scare People”
US Expulsions of Third-Country Nationals to Countries in Africa
Download the full report in English
Appendix I:
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