Human Rights Watch said on October 8, 2026, that the United States has deported more than 500 people to African countries that are not their own, citing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, and accused Washington of running a policy that "instrumentalises human suffering as a deterrent to migration."
The findings, published in a 125-page report titled "To Scare People," cover transfers between January 20, 2025, and August 5, 2026. Researchers interviewed 24 third-country nationals sent to six countries: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, and South Sudan.
The legal status of the program remains in flux. A US federal appeals court ruled that third-country removals were unlawful because they violated due process, finding that people were not given enough time to challenge being sent to a country where they feared persecution or torture. The US Supreme Court has temporarily allowed the administration to continue the removals and will hear arguments in the case in December.
Accounts of the flights
The people interviewed by Human Rights Watch consistently described being shackled at their wrists, waists, and ankles for the entirety of their journeys, sometimes for 18 hours or more, and receiving little or no information about their destination.
One Ethiopian man, granted "withholding of removal" by a US immigration judge because of the likelihood he would be tortured in his home country, said an ICE agent signed a departure form on his behalf after he refused. "We were chained and handcuffed, legs, hands, stomach," he told the group. "When I had to use the bathroom, they didn't even take off the chains."
Human Rights Watch also cited an unnamed US official who told a Senate committee hearing that distant destinations were chosen partly to frighten other migrants. "With countries like Palau or Eswatini, the point is that the administration can threaten people that they will literally be dropped in the middle of nowhere," the official was quoted as saying. "The point is to scare people."
Treatment after arrival
Conditions vary by country, the report found. People sent to Eswatini, Ghana, and South Sudan were arbitrarily detained and faced ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said, while Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and Ghana sent some deportees onward to their home countries in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning people to places where they face persecution or torture.
The group said the United States deported at least a dozen people who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender to African states that criminalize same-sex relations, including refugees who had been granted protection in the United States. Their deportation, the report said, trapped them where it was neither safe to return home nor possible to obtain effective protection.
Payments and pressure
Many of the agreements underpinning the program remain secret or only partly disclosed, Human Rights Watch said, making it difficult to establish the conditions under which people are accepted. The group said it reviewed a written agreement under which the US would provide Eswatini $5.1 million to build border and migration management capacity in exchange for accepting up to 160 deportees. A Rwandan government spokesperson was reported as saying Rwanda agreed to accept up to 250 deportees under an arrangement including roughly $7.5 million in US support.
An investigation by Agence France-Presse earlier in 2026 found the US used diplomatic and economic leverage in negotiations, including threats of higher tariffs, visa restrictions, and cuts to development aid. Many of the African countries agreeing to the deals are among those most affected by the administration's trade, aid, and migration policies.
The administration's position
The US Department of Homeland Security has defended the policy. "Third country removals are an essential public safety tool that remove the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens from our streets," it said in a statement, adding that ICE receives diplomatic assurances from destination countries that deportees will be safe.
DHS also said that when someone refuses to go to their home country, the government is required by law to find a safe and secure nation for them, and that those who choose to return home are offered a free flight and $3,000. Human Rights Watch notes that early flights to Africa included people with serious criminal convictions, but that later transfers included people with US court orders protecting them from return to their home countries.
What remains unknown
The full terms of most transfer agreements have not been published, and Human Rights Watch said none of the African governments it wrote to for detailed information had replied by the time its report was finalized on September 28, 2026. The group said it also had not received requested records from DHS or the State Department.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in December on whether the third-country removal policy violates the Due Process Clause or statutory bars on removing people to a risk of torture. Human Rights Watch is urging the United States to suspend the removals and calling on African governments to terminate or suspend the agreements, disclose their terms, and allow access to independent monitors.