Amnesty International: Washington’s deportation of migrants to “third countries” is a grave violation of the law news

Amnesty International said that since February, the United States of America has significantly expanded its policy of deporting migrants from its territory to countries that are not their countries of origin and to which they have no connection, in the framework of what is known as “deportation to third countries.”

She stressed that this practice is “illegal,” violates the necessary guarantees before deportation, and exposes thousands to the risk of serious violations.

The organization explained that the Trump administration has so far concluded agreements with more than 30 countries to receive deportees of other nationalities, including 12 African countries such as Cape Verde, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, and 15 countries in the Americas, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, in addition to other countries such as Kosovo, Poland, and Uzbekistan.

The Migration Policy Institute estimated those deported to third countries, between January and December 2025, at about 15,000, including 13,000 to Mexico, and the organization said that many were subjected to arbitrary arrest in the destination countries.

According to Amnesty International, the agreements include different models: countries that agree to receive individuals “until they are returned” to their countries of origin, which often leads to arbitrary detention, and others that allow asylum seekers in the United States to apply for protection in those countries and may end up returning them to countries where they face danger, and some arrangements combine the two models. Some agreements explicitly refer to payments to recipient countries for “building border management and migration capacities.”

Crude recklessness

The organization said that international law imposes strict restrictions on the transfer of people to other countries, to ensure that they are not returned to places where they face a real risk of being subjected to torture, enforced disappearance, or serious violations (the principle of non-refoulement), and to ensure that they are able to meaningfully appeal transfer decisions. The American authorities were accused of “gross disregard” for these obligations, by deporting people who were already granted forms of protection, or whose cases were still pending before the courts, and by using procedures that make it almost impossible to object to deportation.

Amnesty International indicated that some of the deportees were not informed of their destination until they were on board the plane, and that others were threatened with deportation to different countries, and some were detained in harsh conditions such as shipping containers, considering that the resulting psychological suffering may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or even torture in some cases.

The organization linked this policy to the expansion of the “mass detention and deportation machine” within the United States, where most federal law enforcement agencies were assigned to implement civil immigration laws, and raids were carried out in the vicinity of schools, places of worship and hospitals, with thousands of people detained in overcrowded and inhumane facilities, including military bases and new centers such as the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility in Florida.

Amnesty International said these policies are not just an issue of “immigration enforcement,” but an issue of the rule of law and racial justice, with families being torn apart, communities terrorized and billions of dollars wasted in a “calculated campaign to dehumanize migrant communities.”

The organization called on the US government to stop sending people to countries where they face the risk of arbitrary detention or return to danger, and to return all those deported to third countries to the United States with a guarantee of reparation for them. It also called on receiving countries to release those who were arbitrarily detained and ensure fair and effective asylum paths, and urged the rest of the countries to refuse to cooperate with the “cruel and inhumane mass deportation campaign” and to condemn its “discriminatory and racist” effects on migrants and refugees.