The United States has deported more than 25,000 migrants to countries other than their home countries. This is according to a report by Refugees International and Human Rights First, as reported by The Guardian.
About 20,000 have been transported across the border into Mexico. Another 5,000 or so have been flown to countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Central Asia.
A 32-year-old Iranian woman named Nika says that she and 17 others were taken aboard a plane in handcuffs without being told where they were going. The plane landed in the Central African Republic.
– They never told me they were going to deport me to this country. I don't know anything about Africa, she says.
According to the report, the United States has signed agreements with so-called third countries in Africa and Latin America. Human rights lawyers describe this as a show of force by the Trump administration, intended to deter others from entering the United States.
They were offered the chance to leave the U.S. voluntarily, in which case they could return legally if they wished.
But they chose to be deported.
A drop in the ocean