Original Summary

Corbis via Getty Image / The US has been sending migrants who cannot be deported to their home nations to other countries instead Campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the deportation of migrants from the US to third-party African countries is against the law and exploits suffering to deter migration. "Many, if not most" of the deportees have no practical option but to return to their home countries regardless of the harm they face there, HRW says in a report. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, more than 500 people have been sent to African countries where they are not citizens, the group says, citing US data. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said "third country removals are an essential public safety tool that remove the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our streets". Tackling immigration was one of Trump's key pledges during the 2024 election. Eswatini, which welcomed 32 deportees from the US, says three people - from Yemen, Belize and Laos - "voluntarily departed" to their home countries recently. According to HRW, some of the countries accepting the deportees have "arbitrarily detained" or sent them to their home countries, where they face "the risk of persecution or torture". The group said that people sent to Eswatini, Ghana and South Sudan, had been arbitrarily detained and faced ill-treatment while in detention. In Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana, the deportees had been sent to their countries of origin despite the risk of "violating the principle of nonrefoulement [that people should not be sent to a country where they face torture, cruel treatment, or threats to their life and freedom]", it said. The group cited an unnamed US official as having told a Senate hearing that the point for the administration was that it could "threaten people that they will literally be dropped in the middle of nowhere". "The point is to scare people," HRW said. "Deporting people to countries where they have never set foot is part of a US policy designed to cause human suffering as a means to deter migration," said Michael Garcia Bochenek, the group's interim US programme director. In a statement from to the BBC, DHS said: "ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is given diplomatic assurances from destination countries that the illegal aliens being removed there will be safe. When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them." None of the African countries named has commented on the report. However, while announcing the recent departure of three migrants on Wednesday, Eswatini said that it was committed to ensuring that the "rights, dignity and well-being of third-country nationals were respected and protected". HRW said it interviewed 24 third-country nationals in six countries - Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and South Sudan. Some described to the group "abusive treatment" during their deportation flights, including being chained for about 18 hours and with no knowledge of their destination. They were also "denied access to essential medication, and often did not receive sufficient food or water". "The opaque deals that facilitate these transfers, some of which are still secret, are part of a US policy that violates international human rights law," HRW says. According to the report, at least a dozen people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) were sent to African states that criminalise same-sex relations. Among them were refugees granted protection in the US based on the likelihood they would be persecuted back home because of their orientation or gender identity. In November, a Nigerian man deported from the US initially to Ghana expressed his fears to the BBC after he and five others were secretly transferred to Togo. He spoke of his fears about returning to Nigeria, where his association with a separatist activist group could lead to his arrest and torture. In DR Congo, HRW says it was told by a US lawyer that of the 15 people from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador deported to the country in April, none remained there by late September, with 11 having returned to their home countries. "The uncertainty and other conditions they faced in the Democratic Republic of Congo call into question whether these returns to countries of origin were voluntary," the group said. Equatorial Guinea, which received 65 people, quickly sent at least two people to their home countries, HRW said. Burundi announced late last month that it had agreed to take in migrants deported from the US. You may also be interested in: Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica , on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

中文概览

中文标题: 人权组织:美国向非洲国家遣返移民违法且利用苦难

人权观察报告称,美国将无法遣返原籍的移民送往非洲第三国违反法律,并利用苦难威慑移民。该组织援引美国数据称,2025年以来已有500多人被送往非其国籍的非洲国家,部分遭任意拘留或被转送原籍,面临迫害或酷刑风险。美国土安全部称第三国遣返是必要的公共安全工具。


  • 情报分类:综合情报
  • 分类依据:美国遣返移民至非洲国家的人权报道,综合新闻
  • 信息来源:英语新闻 / BBC News Top Stories
  • 发布时间:2026/10/8 23:44:02