A government's power to expel those it deems unwanted has always tested the boundaries of law and conscience, but the Trump administration's quiet arrangement to scatter thousands of people across unfamiliar continents — some holding legal protections, none told their destination — raises a question as old as exile itself: where does sovereignty end and cruelty begin? Through bilateral agreements with 38 nations, more than 25,000 people have been deposited in countries they have never known, at a cost of hundreds of millions in public funds and an incalculable toll in human suffering. Courts h
Trump's Secret Third-Country Deportations: 25,000 Sent to Nations They've Never Known
Thousands deported to unsafe third countries face malaria, police extortion, forced returns to persecuting regimes, suicide attempts, and separation from elderly dependent family members in the US.
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle…
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Banished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation deals.
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After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy de…
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- An Iranian woman granted asylum — a legal shield the US itself recognized — was re-arrested, shackled onto a plane with no disclosed destination, and deposited in the Central African Republic, where she contracted malaria and was extorted by police who found her without identification.
- The administration has quietly secured agreements with 38 countries to receive deportees, pledging $410 million and redirecting funds originally designated for UN humanitarian relief — turning the architecture of global aid into a mechanism of removal.
- Detainees on deportation flights were deliberately kept ignorant of their destination, with officers reportedly taunting those who asked, a detail that transforms bureaucratic process into something closer to psychological warfare.
- A federal appeals court has ruled these third-country removals unlawful, but the administration is appealing, and August 2025 saw record numbers of deportation flights — the legal challenge trailing behind the operational reality.
- Those deposited in these third countries face compounding harms: tropical disease, police extortion, forced onward transfer to the very regimes that once persecuted them, suicide attempts, and the severing of ties to elderly dependents left behind in the US.
A government's power to expel those it deems unwanted has always tested the boundaries of law and conscience, but the Trump administration's quiet arrangement to scatter thousands of people across unfamiliar continents — some holding legal protections, none told their destination — raises a question as old as exile itself: where does sovereignty end and cruelty begin? Through bilateral agreements with 38 nations, more than 25,000 people have been deposited in countries they have never known, at a cost of hundreds of millions in public funds and an incalculable toll in human suffering. Courts have begun to push back, yet the flights continue to accelerate, leaving the law racing to catch what policy has already set in motion.
No one on the plane would tell them where they were going. When detainees asked the officers in charge, they were met with taunts rather than answers. It was only when the seat-back screens finally revealed a map that the passengers — shackled, disoriented — began to understand how far from anything familiar they were being taken.
Nika, an Iranian woman who had been granted legal protection in the United States, was among them. She landed in the Central African Republic, a country she had not known existed. In the weeks that followed, she contracted malaria and was repeatedly extorted by local police who found her without identification documents — a woman with nowhere to appeal and no government willing to claim her.
Hers is one of more than 25,000 such stories produced by a largely covert American program that has quietly negotiated agreements with 38 countries to accept deportees regardless of those individuals' origins or legal status. The administration has pledged $410 million to sustain these arrangements and has redirected funding originally designated for UN humanitarian programs to help finance them — repurposing the infrastructure of global compassion as a tool of removal.
The human costs documented so far include tropical illness, police violence, forced transfer to the regimes from which people originally fled, suicide attempts, and the sudden disappearance of caregivers from the lives of elderly dependents in the US who had no warning and no recourse.
A federal appeals court has found the third-country removal program unlawful. The administration intends to appeal. In the meantime, the flights are not slowing — August 2025 recorded their highest volume yet, the legal reckoning still catching up to what has already been done.
A story is developing around Banished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation deals. After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy deals made with dozens of countries. An in…
Nika’s story No one would tell the shackled detainees onboard the US immigration plane where they were going. The officers in charge would taunt them when they asked, they said. It was only when the seat-back video screens finally showed a…
This account is still unfolding. More context will surface as other outlets pick up the thread and add their own reporting.
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Das Original lesen bei The Guardian ↗
World & Diplomacy