A new investigation by global human rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has leveled sharp criticism against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump for its policy of deporting migrants who cannot be returned to their home countries to third-party nations across Africa, arguing the practice violates international law and inflicts unnecessary human suffering to deter future migration flows.
Since Trump took office for his second term in January 2025, more than 500 non-citizens have been transferred to African states where they hold no citizenship, HRW said in its report, drawing on official U.S. government data. The policy was a core campaign promise during Trump’s successful 2024 presidential run, centered on reducing unauthorized border crossings into the U.S.
HRW’s researchers conducted interviews with 24 deportees held across six African host nations — Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and South Sudan — to document conditions faced by transferred migrants. Multiple interviewees described severe mistreatment during the deportation process itself: many were kept chained for as long as 18 hours en route, were not informed of their final destination, were denied access to critical prescription medication, and received inadequate food and water during transit.
The report warns that “many, if not most” deportees have no viable option but to travel onward to their home countries, even when doing so puts them at direct risk of violence, persecution, torture, or death. This directly violates the international legal principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits sending people to territories where they face threats to their life or freedom, the group noted.
In several host countries, HRW documented that authorities arbitrarily detained deportees and subjected them to ill-treatment behind bars. The group specifically named Eswatini, Ghana, and South Sudan as locations where detainees have reported abuse. In Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Ghana, migrants were subsequently transferred to their home countries despite clear risks of harm, in open violation of nonrefoulement rules.
Among the most vulnerable cases documented are at least a dozen LGBT+ migrants who were sent to African nations that criminalize same-sex relations. Several of these people had already been granted refugee protection in the U.S. specifically because they would face persecution for their gender identity or sexual orientation in their countries of origin.
One high-profile case highlighted by the report involved a Nigerian man who was first deported from the U.S. to Ghana, before being secretly transferred to Togo in November. He told the BBC he feared being sent onward to Nigeria, where his ties to a separatist activist group put him at risk of arrest and torture.
HRW also cited testimony from an unnamed U.S. official who told a Senate hearing that the policy is explicitly designed to deter migration by creating fear. The official confirmed that the administration’s goal is to “threaten people that they will literally be dropped in the middle of nowhere”, a framing HRW echoed by noting “the point is to scare people.”
“Deporting people to countries where they have never set foot is part of a U.S. policy designed to cause human suffering as a means to deter migration,” said Michael Garcia Bochenek, HRW’s interim U.S. programme director. “The opaque deals that facilitate these transfers, some of which are still kept secret from the public, violate international human rights law.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has defended the policy, framing it as a critical public safety measure. In a statement to the BBC, DHS said “third country removals are an essential public safety tool that remove the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our streets.” The department added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) secures diplomatic assurances from host countries that deportees will be treated safely, and once individuals are released from ICE custody, the agency no longer holds responsibility for their wellbeing.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis clarified that the policy only applies to migrants whose home countries refuse to readmit them, or who are blocked from return by court order. She added that “any illegal alien who wants to go home, we will arrange a free flight for them and give them a $3,000 check.”
None of the African nations named in the HRW report have issued public comments responding to the allegations. However, Eswatini — which has accepted 32 U.S. deportees — recently announced that three migrants from Yemen, Belize, and Laos had “voluntarily departed” for their home countries, and reaffirmed the country’s commitment to “protecting the rights, dignity and well-being of third-country nationals.”
HRW’s research also found that most deportees do not remain long in their African host countries. In the DRC, for example, a U.S. lawyer told the group that all 15 South American migrants deported there in April had left for their home countries by late September. HRW said the unstable, dangerous conditions faced by deportees in the DRC raise serious questions about whether those departures were truly voluntary. Equatorial Guinea, which accepted 65 deportees, quickly sent at least two of them onward to their home countries, the report noted.
Most recently, Burundi announced at the end of last month that it had reached an agreement with the U.S. to accept deported migrants, expanding the policy’s footprint on the continent.