US deportations to third countries shrouded in secrecy

Secrecy has dominated the deportations that the United States has carried out to third-party African countries — those that are not the deportees’ countries of origin. Rwanda is the latest nation on the continent to receive seven deportees. Nothing is known about them: neither their names, origins, the charges against them, nor their current whereabouts. The transfer took place in early August, but the administration only made it public on August 28.

Before Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini received flights in July carrying migrants sent from the United States. These transfers were not reported until weeks after they occurred, and the administration did not provide the identities of the deportees, who remain imprisoned in high-security facilities. Their lawyers allege that they are being held in isolation, cannot communicate with anyone, do not know the crimes they are accused of, and fear they may be tortured as they have been sent to countries where human rights are not respected.

Critics also point out that these deportations are dangerous and cruel, as the individuals are sent to countries where, in addition to the risk of torture, they have no connections and do not speak the language. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated in June that deportations to third countries allow the U.S. to expel people “who are so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won’t take them back.” The deportees’ lawyers dispute this claim.

“It remains unclear whether the Trump administration even attempted to repatriate them [...] Neither the Vietnamese nor Laotian governments have publicly declined repatriation, and neither has had direct access to these men. My clients wish to return to their home countries,” said Tin Thanh Nguyen, a lawyer for two Southeast Asian migrants deported to Eswatini, a small southern African country formerly known as Swaziland. Eswatini, which borders South Africa, is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies. King Mswati III has ruled since he turned 18 in 1986, and authorities under his command are accused of violently suppressing pro-democracy movements.

Nguyen maintains that for weeks the government has provided no explanation for why his clients were sent there. A human rights lawyer in Eswatini sued the authorities, alleging that the men were being denied legal representation while held in a maximum-security prison.

The United States sent five men to Eswatini in July — citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos. The African government initially stated that the men would remain in isolation until their repatriation, a process that could take up to a year.

Deported after serving his sentence

Lawyers for Orville Etoria, the Jamaican man sent to Eswatini, also say they have been unable to contact him and fear for his safety. They reject the U.S. government’s claim that he was deported to a third country because he couldn’t be sent to Jamaica. Jamaican officials said that it was not true that their country was unwilling to accept him. “Our position is that we do not refuse any of our nationals, regardless of whatever they have done,” Joan Thomas Edwards, Jamaica’s top diplomat in southern Africa, said in an interview with The New York Times.

Etoria’s family did not know his whereabouts for several days until his name appeared on the list of deportees to Eswatini. At 62, he had served a sentence for murdering a man in New York in 1996. During his imprisonment, an immigration judge ordered Etoria’s deportation, even though he had legal permanent residence in the United States. After his release in 2021, immigration authorities allowed him to remain in the country, provided he complied with annual check-ins.

Neither Eswatini nor the United States has explained why Etoria is being detained, despite having served his sentence in the U.S. and not having been charged with any new crime.

“Before his shocking deportation, Mr. Etoria had been living in New York, following the law and reporting regularly to ICE under an order of supervision. When ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] asked him to obtain a Jamaican passport earlier this year, he complied. But instead of removing him to Jamaica, as his documentation clearly allowed and as common sense would dictate, the U.S. government inexplicably and illegally sent him to Eswatini,” said his attorney, Mia Unger.

The Trump administration argues that migrants deported to third countries are dangerous criminals. Etoria earned a bachelor’s degree while in prison, successfully completed parole, worked at a men’s shelter, and was pursuing a master’s degree in theology.

According to The New York Times, the Eswatini government was willing to accept over 150 people from other countries in exchange for a cash payment of more than $10 million from the United States.

“My two clients have been imprisoned in Eswatini, at U.S. taxpayer expense, for over six weeks,” said Alma David, attorney for the two men from Yemen and Cuba deported to Eswatini. “No one has told them why they are being detained, and no lawyer has been permitted to visit them.”

Since returning to the White House, the Trump administration has negotiated agreements with countries to accept deportees from other nations. The deals reached remain secret, but it is estimated that negotiations have been attempted with dozens of countries.

On Thursday, during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ecuador announced that the United States proposed an agreement to accept up to 300 people per year with refugee status — with no criminal record, in good health, and from other nationalities not yet specified.

Strategy to make migrants self-deport

Experts believe that the deportations are intended to stoke fear among migrants and encourage them to “self-deport” to their countries of origin rather than be sent to countries where they face worse conditions, such as El Salvador. In March, the U.S. government sent more than 250 migrants, mostly Venezuelans accused — without evidence — of belonging to the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, to that country. This week, a judge ruled that the use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which the government invoked to expel the migrants secretly and without due process to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), was illegal.

According to the International Refugee Assistance Project, the law requires that deportations to third countries only be considered when deportation to all countries with which a migrant has a significant connection is “impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible.” Lower courts had blocked the announced deportations to South Sudan, arguing that detainees had not been given the opportunity to state whether they risked violence at their destination. However, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court authorized the deportations. An internal U.S. immigration control guide issued in July stated that migrants could be deported to countries that had not provided diplomatic assurances of their safety in as little as six hours.

“It’s absolutely punitive. What the government is doing is using deportations to African and other countries as a punishment. They’re breaking the law by deporting them to places where it’s very difficult for them to return to their home country,” says Trina Realmuto, an attorney with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which has filed a lawsuit against the Trump government.

The argument is that, first, the authorities cannot rely on destination countries to safeguard the detainees’ security. In addition, before deportation, migrants should be interviewed to give them the opportunity to state whether the destination country is safe for them or if they risk torture or retaliation. The notice period, the lawsuit argues, is not long enough for this procedure.

What’s more, the countries with which the U.S. has reached agreements do not meet conditions to ensure detainees’ human rights. Rwanda, which has agreed to receive up to 250 migrants, for example, has positioned itself as a destination for migrants that Western countries wish to expel, despite concerns that Rwanda does not respect basic rights.

The first African country to receive deportees from the U.S. was South Sudan, where eight men from South Sudan, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, and Myanmar were sent in July after their deportations were delayed by a court ruling, which kept them detained for weeks in a converted shipping container at a U.S. military base in Djibouti.

The government of South Sudan stated that it would guarantee their “safety and welfare,” but has refused to disclose where they are being held or what their eventual fate might be. South Sudan has been ravaged by conflict since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 and is once again on the brink of civil war.

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