The United States has sharply expanded the deportation of migrants to countries other than their own, with more than 16,000 such cases recorded since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
The policy, known as third-country deportation, has drawn condemnation from rights groups and United Nations experts, who warn that people may be sent to places where they have no connections, do not speak the language and may struggle to secure protection.
Trump campaigned on a promise to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history”. Immigration officers now make thousands of arrests each day, including of people seeking asylum who are entitled to explain the dangers they could face if returned home.
US law and international agreements, including the United Nations Convention Against Torture, prohibit deportation to a country where a person faces persecution or torture. The administration has nevertheless pursued alternative destinations for people it says cannot be returned safely to their countries of origin.
Third-country deportations expand across the US system
Data from the Department of Homeland Security records more than 16,000 deportations to third countries between January 2025 and August 2026, the latest month available. The figures, supplied to the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles, are believed to understate the total.
Refugees International and Human Rights First estimate that more than 25,000 people have been forcibly sent to third countries, using media reports and information from lawyers.
The organisations say many deportees were not told where they were being taken. Some arrived without passports or identification documents, leaving them unable to establish themselves in countries with which they had no cultural or legal ties.
Critics also fear that host countries may not provide a fair opportunity to pursue asylum claims. In some cases, they say, deportees could ultimately be sent back to their home countries and exposed to the persecution they had sought to escape.
The practice is not new, but rights groups say it was extremely uncommon before the current administration and has never been used by the US on its present scale. Some American courts have ruled that the policy is unlawful, although the Supreme Court allowed it to continue, including in a ruling in September.
UN experts have described the policy as creating a “cascade of human rights violations” and warned that it could weaken international standards governing the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
Countries agree to receive deportees
Third-country transfers require the approval of the receiving government. The Trump administration has therefore sought formal agreements and informal arrangements with an expanding number of countries.
El Salvador and Eswatini have agreed to hold some deportees in prisons. Other countries have accepted people temporarily, including under Asylum Cooperative Agreements, also known as Safe Third Country Agreements, which allow migrants to pursue asylum claims in the country receiving them.
The list of destinations has grown alongside offers of financial aid, business opportunities and visa concessions. Liberia has agreed to accept up to 1,200 deportees, while the administration said it would extend the validity of certain visas for Liberians from 12 months to 36 months and provide $124 million for the country’s health services.
Cameroon, which agreed in December 2025 to receive third-country nationals from the US, has been promised $30 million for United Nations refugee work and $400 million over coming years for health services.
