UN experts warn US third-country deportations risk severe human rights abuses.

UN human rights experts warn that the Trump administration’s policy of deporting migrants and asylum seekers to third countries is exposing people to a heightened risk of torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, trafficking and discrimination. They say many are sent to countries where they have no ties, and where authorities may be unable or unwilling to protect them; children, women, LGBTQ people, trafficking survivors and other vulnerable groups face particular danger. The experts have called on the United States and receiving countries to halt the arrangements, which they say may also violate the principle of non-refoulement. Reports put the number already transferred at more than 20,000, while agreements reportedly cover at least 35 countries.
According to Refugees International and Human Rights First, about 20,000 people were transported by bus to Mexico, while more than 5,000 others were flown to countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central Asia.
The UN experts said they had contacted the United States and all 35 receiving countries to raise their concerns and call for an immediate halt to the policy.
The experts identified Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya and South Sudan among the countries that had signed agreements to receive deportees.
A Forbidden Stories investigation with an international journalism consortium estimated that more than 25,000 people had been deported to third countries by the end of August—higher than the experts’ reported minimum of 23,000.
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