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UN human rights experts warn that US deportations of migrants to third countries violate human rights, calling for an immediate halt to the policy.
United Nations human rights experts have warned that the deportation of thousands of migrants from the United States to third countries is causing a cascade of human rights violations that could have deadly consequences. The warning was issued on Monday by 24 experts who advise the UN Human Rights Council, backed by a special rapporteur for the African Commission. They have contacted the US and each of the 35 countries involved to express concerns and call for an immediate halt to the policy.
Deportation Policy Under Scrutiny
The experts said the harms caused by this US government scheme are no longer hypothetical. The arrangements are triggering a cascade of human rights violations. For migrants in situations of particular vulnerability, the consequences can be deadly. Those being sent to countries where they have no connections face increased risks of torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearances.
The Trump administration says deportations are focused on removing criminals from the US. However, an investigation by the Guardian, as part of a consortium of journalists coordinated by the Forbidden Stories network, uncovered cases of vulnerable individuals deported. They included an Iranian woman who had sought safety in the US after protesting against the regime and a gay man who had fled Ghana after being outed and hunted by his own family.
Impact on Vulnerable Migrants
According to the UN experts, these migrants are being transferred to countries or territories with which they have no ties. This can be a traumatising and isolating experience that compounds harms already suffered, which triggered their fleeing to the US in the first place. Others are sent to places where they risk further violence or discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or human rights advocacy.
The statement noted that some countries that have struck deals with the US are engulfed in conflict, meaning US arrivals are turning up in places where people are already grappling with displacement, starvation, and debilitating poverty. These countries lack the capacity to protect the rights of migrants sent there by wealthy nations seeking to shirk their international obligations.
Legal and Global Implications
Human rights lawyers say the deportations allow the US administration to skirt around its legal obligations because US law does not allow people to be sent back to countries where they are likely to be persecuted. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security has been deporting migrants, including asylum seekers, to third countries. From there, they are often moved on to home countries they had fled.
The statement pointed to the severe impact this could have on people who were already vulnerable. What is at stake is not merely migration policy, but the lives, safety, dignity, and rights of people who may already have endured grave harm and who, in many cases, are fleeing life-threatening persecution and violence in their home countries.
It was the first comprehensive statement of its kind, according to Beatrice Njeri of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, which has represented people expelled from the US to third countries. She said it comes at a very important point in time when we are continuing to see extreme human rights violations that are super horrific, citing two men expelled to Equatorial Guinea.
Njeri, who works as the organisation’s regional litigator for Africa, said the African states involved in the scheme had paid little attention to any of the pleas, litigation, and advocacy aimed at halting these arrangements. So, it has felt like we’re screaming into a void. And we hope that this statement will contribute to trying to hold these states accountable.
She also warned against the creation of offshore centres for migrants, saying it is a good warning to them not to follow suit. European states now clearly know how African states are implementing the agreements, violating people’s rights, and offering no redress. And so they have no excuse.
UN Human Rights Donald Trump Deportation Policy Third Countries Migrant Rights El Centro Detention Forbidden Stories
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