Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged African governments participating in the United States’ third-country deportation programme to suspend or terminate the agreements, warning that they expose migrants and asylum seekers to human rights abuses.
The rights organisation made the call in a report released on Friday, alleging that the arrangements deny affected individuals meaningful opportunities to challenge their removal and expose some to persecution, torture and further deportation to countries where they face danger.
According to HRW, the 125-page report, titled “To Sare People: US Expulsions of Third-Country Nationals to Countries in Africa,” examines the experiences of more than 500 people transferred under the programme.
It also draws on interviews conducted between February and July 2026 with 24 deportees sent to Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and South Sudan.
“Because the US government uses these agreements to shirk its responsibilities and to deprive people of their due process rights, the African governments that have entered into these agreements should terminate or suspend them,” said Michael Garcia Bochenek, HRW’s interim US programme director.
The report alleged that US authorities deported people to countries where they had never lived, often without giving them adequate opportunities to contest their transfer or explain fears for their safety.
It further documented cases of arbitrary detention and the return of deportees to countries where they risked persecution or torture, in violation of the international principle of non-refoulement.
HRW also reported that at least 12 people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender were sent to African countries where same-sex relations are criminalised, leaving them vulnerable to further abuses.
Some deportees reportedly experienced prolonged shackling, inadequate information about their destinations and denial of medication or medical care after arrival.
Bochenek said some receiving governments had also violated the rights of deportees.
HRW urged participating countries to ensure that deportees were not unlawfully detained or returned to places where they faced persecution, torture or other serious harm.
The criticism comes as the Trump administration expands third-country removals as part of its broader mass deportation policy.
