US Third-country Deportations Expand, Sending Dozens to Africa

By Al Mayadeen English

31 Jul 2026 22:23

The US initiative is underway despite concerns over legal protections and transparency.

The United States deported dozens of individuals to four African countries on Thursday and Friday as part of President Donald Trump’s expanded “third-country” deportation initiative, AFP reported, citing attorneys familiar with the cases.

The deportations, which targeted Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and the Central African Republic, have raised concerns among legal observers who note that many of those removed are not nationals of the destination nations.

Alma David and Meredyth Yoon, US immigration attorneys with knowledge of the affected cases, told AFP that approximately 10 people were deported to Equatorial Guinea on Thursday. On Friday, a flight from the United States arrived in Sierra Leone, where about 10 more individuals were taken off the aircraft, David said. The same flight is now continuing to Ghana and then to the Central African Republic, the lawyers reported.

All four countries have previously accepted African deportees from the United States, according to the attorneys. In Equatorial Guinea, some prior deportees have been stranded in a hotel for months, while Ghana left others across the border in Togo without documentation last year, the lawyers added.

Opaque deportations

The flights were logged by ICE Flight Monitor, a tracker affiliated with the non-profit organization Human Rights First. According to the tracker, both sets of flights refueled in Senegal, which has become a key stopover point for deportation flights on the continent.

The deportation process has often been opaque, Yoon said. She and her colleagues had a list of individuals believed to be on the plane but were not certain whether they were being sent to Sierra Leone or Ghana, she explained. This uncertainty reflects broader concerns about the transparency of the administration’s expanded deportation policies.

Trump targets legally protected groups with deportations

Trump in his second term has broadened eligibility for deportation, in part by targeting individuals with legal protections that under previous administrations allowed them to live and work in the United States due to fears of persecution in their home countries.

Under the current administration, Washington has argued that while it cannot return such individuals to their countries of origin, it is not prohibited from sending them to third countries, according to the report.

An AFP investigation found that the United States has offered multimillion-dollar deals and threatened visa restrictions in a bid to secure agreements with “third countries", particularly in Africa, to accept such deportees. Once in these nations and outside US jurisdiction, deportees have faced abuse by local guards, indefinite detention, or rapid re-deportation to their home countries, the investigation showed.