US deportations triggering ‘cascade’ of rights abuses: UN experts

They warned that the deportations could lead to violations including arbitrary detention, slavery and trafficking.(AFP) — U.S. deportations of thousands of people to dozens of countries are “triggering a cascade of human rights violations,” heightening the risk of abuses including torture, slavery and trafficking, U.N. experts warned Monday.Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, Washington has signed agreements with developing countries to accept migrants who cannot legally be sent to their home countries.More than 20 independent United Nations experts, including special rapporteurs on migrants’ rights and on human rights while countering terrorism, warned that the agreements were “increasing risks of torture and ill-treatment and enforced disappearance.”The agreements were also “breaching the customary law principle of non-refoulement in countries around the world that are signing agreements to accept planeloads of migrants and refugees removed from the US,” they said.The experts said the United States had signed agreements with more than 35 countries, including Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya and South Sudan. They said at least 23,000 people had been deported to countries other than their own.An investigation published last week by the nonprofit group Forbidden Stories and a consortium of international journalists put the number above 25,000 by the end of August.The experts warned that deportees were being sent “to countries or territories with which they have no ties,” potentially compounding the harms that drove them to flee to the United States.“Others are sent to places where they risk further violence or discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or human rights advocacy.”The experts, who are appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said those affected included asylum-seekers and migrants at various stages of the immigration process.They warned that the arrangements could lead to violations including arbitrary detention, slavery and trafficking.“At gravest risk are children, women, persons with disabilities, victims of trafficking, LGBT persons, human rights defenders, stateless persons and other people in extremely vulnerable situations,” they said.“For migrants in situations of particular vulnerability, the consequences can be deadly.”The experts said they had notified the United States and the other governments involved. Many of the receiving countries have “no asylum processing infrastructure, protective holding facilities or adequate health and medical services or sustainable reintegration options,” they said.“In many cases, these third countries are themselves engulfed in conflict, with their own populations facing displacement, starvation and debilitating poverty,” they said.“All states and territories involved must immediately halt these arrangements.”The experts stressed that “cooperation does not dilute responsibility.”“A state that knowingly aids or assists another state in conduct that violates non-refoulement or other human rights obligations may itself incur international responsibility,” they said.They said they also had contacted U.N. agencies that assist refugees and migrants, including the International Organization for Migration, to stress that “their engagement must never legitimise arrangements that expose people to refoulement or other grave human rights violations.”“Participating in measures that lead to rights violations … may, in some situations, amount to complicity,” they warned.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads