Under the Trump administration's anti-immigration policy, new deportations of migrants to so-called "third countries" took place without the deportees having any ties to or citizenship in the destination country. Based on the claim that these individuals' presence in the U.S. was "illegal", this strategy also targets individuals whose home countries refuse to accept their return, as well as those who had secured legal protection in U.S. courts due to the risk of torture and persecution in their homelands.
As reported by CBS News, this policy involved pacts with dozens of nations—including territories with histories of instability, conflict, or human rights violations—culminating in the transfer of an initial group of approximately 20 people (mostly Latin Americans) to Liberia, in West Africa. This move was part of an agreement to accept up to 1,200 deportees over a 12-month period.
According to an Al Jazeera report, the plan's implementation faced severe legal, logistical, and operational uncertainties due to significant factors—including the fact that the group's arrival in Monrovia occurred without transparency regarding their full nationalities, shelter facilities, entry documents, or the legal status of those involved. While the Liberian administration defended the pact using humanitarian and historical rhetoric—guaranteeing the arrivals the status of guests free to seek asylum, with costs covered by the U.S. and international entities—the process sparked a backlash, primarily from civil society groups within the country. Lawmakers and civil society members questioned the agreement's constitutionality, noting it had bypassed the legislature and citing risks to national security and sovereignty, as well as the State's lack of biometric infrastructure and operational capacity to monitor and integrate these individuals.
Strong resistance from the individuals was also reported during the logistics of the deportation journey. According to a Reuters report, on a flight originating in Louisiana—with a stopover in Senegal and a landing in Liberia—five of the twenty passengers (three Cuban men, one Brazilian, and one Cameroonian woman) refused to disembark. After being informed they would be returned to the United States, they were diverted to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, and forced to disembark against their will.
Currently, the newly arrived individuals are being held in a closed-down hotel alongside dozens of other deportees previously sent to the region; they face precarious living conditions, a lack of medical care, and a denial of legal support. While U.S. security and foreign affairs agencies defend the transfers as legal, safe, and effective measures to discourage irregular migration, international organizations and human rights activists condemn the model for violating international guidelines, treating people as objects, and exposing them to the risk of indirect repatriation to the places they had fled.
The forced transfer of migrants to third countries has exposed drastic measures justified by the Trump administration’s rhetoric on combating illegal immigration, as these actions fail to uphold fundamental guarantees and principles of international and human rights law. These agreements are part of a broader set of policies that—beyond denying other fundamental rights—fail to provide immigrants with adequate legal protections. Ultimately, such practices subject individuals to harsh living conditions and, in the case of deportations to third countries, turn nations deemed vulnerable into dumping grounds for people with no local ties, often under conditions that remain largely unknown.
