By Enyichukwu Enemanna
US President Donald Trump is making plans to repatriate a number of Iranians and other migrants to Central African Republic, a security fragile nation with a history of violence and high poverty rate, Reuters quoted two lawyers and an official familiar with the matter as saying.
The Iranians include two women who face potential torture and persecution if they are forced to go back to Iran, their lawyer, Emily Trostle, said. One is a Christian convert and the other is a pro-democracy activist, she added.
Both the women were detained upon arriving in the U.S. in November 2024, their lawyer said. According to her, they applied for asylum in the U.S. and had secured a form of protection known as withholding of removal from a U.S. immigration judge, Trostle said.
According to Reuters report, the official conversant with the matter said the first flight to Central African Republic under the deal was expected to take about 20 people, also including Syrians and Afghans. The plane could leave as early as this week, the two lawyers said.
Another source familiar with the preparations said one Turkish national was also expected to be deported.
The U.S. State Department and the Central African Republic presidency, which recently agreed to a deal to accept so-called third-country deportees from the U.S. are yet to publicly comment on the matter.
The Trump administration has used third-country deportation deals to deport people it can’t legally send back to their home countries.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also signed the deal with the US is now facing an Ebola outbreak.
Washington has defended the deals as lawful, though rights groups and advocates have said the details of the deals are opaque and many of the deportees are ultimately repatriated.
The U.S. and Israel launched heavy strikes on Iran in late February, kicking off a now three-month-old of war.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in April that he thought the Iranian people should rise up against the government in Iran if a ceasefire were declared, but understood that it was too dangerous for them to do so.
The deportees will be held in apartments in Central African Republic’s capital Bangui and are not expected to be repatriated immediately, the briefed official said.
