Trump’s third country deportations pose risk of abuse and incarceration

The story so far:

The Trump administration in the U.S. has struck secretive deals with several countries, mainly African and Central American countries, to accept non-citizen deportees, also known as third-country nationals (TCNs). Mexico, El Salvador, South Sudan, Eswatini, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, and Uganda are among the growing list of countries that have accepted such deportees in exchange for millions of dollars. Human rights organisations and activists have flagged that many of these countries have a long record of committing human rights abuses, trafficking, and corruption.

The migrants Trump is deporting

“On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America,” Donald Trump said during his Presidential campaign in New York.

As of October 2025, more than five lakh migrants have been deported from the U.S. since January. In this mass deportation scheme, Mr. Trump has also escalated third-country deportations, a step that was rarely used in the past.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that the deportees chosen for this have been convicted of crimes, including murder. However, the administration has forcibly transferred asylum seekers as well as people with pending immigration cases or those who have received final orders of removal.

Third-country deportations

Third-country deportation is a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act under which the DHS can send someone to a country to which the person has no ties if the deportation to the country of origin/where they have lived in the past is “impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible,” or if the government of the home country is unwilling to accept the deportee.

In July 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a new memorandum that allows immigration officials to deport people to ‘third countries’ within 24 hours after they have been served a notice or within just six hours in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Moreover in June, the U.S. Supreme Court had lifted a lower court’s order limiting such deportations without a screening. This has allowed the administration to ramp up the pace of third-country deportations.

Officials say that this approach aims to discourage migration and encourage voluntary self-deportation.

Countries that have accepted these migrants

Currently, there are around 12 countries that have agreements with the Trump administration. These include Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Liberia, Libya, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. More agreements are expected to be signed during his term.

There is no requirement for the country to sign a formal public agreement to accept TCNs. Hence, these deals have ambiguous terms and no data is available on how many migrants are facing such deportations and the conditions of their stay.

These countries have agreed to a range of arrangements which include incarceration of the deportees, temporary stay before return to the home country, detention and arrangements for them to remain in the third country. They should also give ‘diplomatic assurances’ that deportees will not face torture or persecution.

Mexico has accepted the largest number of non-resident deportees. The country had earlier accepted TCNs during Mr. Trump’s first term. Reportedly, from January 2025 to November 2025, 10,928 non-Mexicans were sent to the country. These deportees mainly come from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Reason for these countries to enter into these deals

Compensation and political pressure are said to be the main reasons why these countries have accepted deportees. Most of the countries that have accepted the agreements are heavily reliant on U.S. aid, and following major fund cuts by the Trump administration, accepting deportees has become a way to get humanitarian funding. It has also become a tool for some of these countries to get relief from U.S. sanctions and escape tariffs.

For example, Belize’s largest trading partner is the U.S, with whom it has a major trade deficit. The country lost a $125 million development grant owing to a decision by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to shut down the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a major U.S. foreign aid agency. Mr. Trump has also termed Belize as a major drug-producing and transit country. These have become the speculated reasons as to why the country accepted the “Safe Third Country Agreement.”

Similarly, the U.S. sent $7.5 million to Equatorial Guinea in exchange of accepting TCNs. A senior Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen wrote a letter to Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, stating that the payment was ‘highly unusual’ considering the country’s record of corruption among government officials and complicity in human trafficking.

Ghana has accepted at least 60 TCNs, and the Trump administration lifted visa sanctions in exchange. Kosovo, one of the few countries in Europe that have agreed to temporarily host TCNs, is reported to have come to this agreement so that the U.S. can lobby support from other nations to recognise its sovereignty.

Mr. Trump has reportedly approached around 58 countries to accept TCNs. Burkina Faso and Nigeria had publicly rejected the deal. “Burkina Faso is not a land of deportation,” Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said. He called the request to be indecent and unworthy. Nigeria too, citing internal problems and security concerns, did not accept the deal.

The problems flagged by rights activists

UN human rights experts have raised alarm over the expeditious removal of deportees to third countries. According to them, removal within 24 hours does not give enough time for the deportees to appear before an immigration judge or express fear of persecution formally. Hence, due process is not followed.

In several cases, people who have been deported are reported to have been separated from their children and other family members who remain in the U.S. Pregnant women and people with medical problems and psychological illnesses have also been indiscriminately deported.

The lack of common language and familial ties with the third country have put them in a very vulnerable state. They also have no access to legal protection or aid. In some cases, people who have completed their sentence in the U.S. are now indefinitely detained in foreign prisons. Sending migrants to war zones like South Sudan and Libya also poses a major threat to their lives.

Enforced disappearances and trafficking are other major risks for these deportees who have no rights in the third country. The government of Ghana has not revealed the whereabouts of 45 deportees who were in the first flight from the U.S.

Many of the TCNs have been reported to have been unlawfully detained. In El Salvador, most of the deportees have been kept at the notorious mega prison, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).

Accepting deportees of foreign nations is a violation of immigration laws in many nations. Rights groups have filed suits against the governments of Eswatini, Ghana and Panama, citing the deals as unconstitutional and not receiving approval from Parliament.

Human rights activists say that TCNs are subjected to mistreatment despite not committing an offence in the U.S. or in the third country. A total of 300 migrants, including those from Nepal and Afghanistan, were sent to Panama, and pictures of them locked up in a hotel had surfaced on social media. Currently, 60% of them have been repatriated. Others, expressing fear of persecution in their home country, remain there. However, getting asylum in the country is extremely difficult, with application acceptance rates at less than 2%.

International law

As per the 1951 Refugee Convention and the U.N. Convention Against Torture, the U.S. can not deport a person to a country where they could face violence or persecution.

These conventions also bar the U.S. from sending people to a country which will then send them to a country where the person could be persecuted or tortured. This is known as “chain refoulement.” Federal judges have accused the Trump administration of using third country deportations as chain refoulement.

As per international law, due process is required to be followed, and the deportees must have access to legal support in a case of third country deportation, which is absent in most of the cases.