Dozens of immigrant deportees, including Cuban nationals with legal entry records, have been transported by the U.S. government to the Central African Republic. Stranded without documents or money, the arrivals face severe security risks in a nation under a Level 4 State Department travel advisory following deals brokered by the Trump administration.
Third-Country Deportations Target Asylum-Seekers and Workers
The Trump administration has expanded a network of third-country deportation agreements with more than 30 nations. According to reporting from Cbsnews, the removals target immigrants whose home countries reject or limit U.S. deportations, as well as individuals who hold legal protections from immigration courts that bar their return to their countries of origin.
Among those sent abroad is Yasmany Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban immigrant who was working and living in Florida. He arrived in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, in late July alongside detainees from Ecuador, Honduras, Serbia, Russia, and Vietnam. Moreno de Armas told reporters that he received no notice of his destination prior to landing.
A joint project by non-profits Refugees International and Human Rights First, known as Third Country Deportation Watch, estimates that approximately 22,000 people have been sent to third countries far from their homelands under these arrangements.
Logistics of a Secretive Transfer to Bangui
Details of the transfer emerged through accounts from passengers on the flights. Aristides Fernandez Garcia, a 37-year-old Cuban deportee interviewed by lataco.com, described a commercial flight carrying roughly 80 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. Passengers remained in hand and foot shackles for nearly 36 hours before landing on July 31, 2026, in the Central African Republic.
According to the reporting, guards on the aircraft expressed surprise at the destination. One tactical guard approached the shackled deportees and asked, What are you doing on this flight? They don’t sell baleadas in Africa.
When the passengers questioned the routing, the agent confirmed they were headed to the continent.
The transfer arrangements coincide with financial agreements. lataco.com reported that the Central African Republic accepted deportees in exchange for 44 million dollars in contracts connected to the U.S. deportation apparatus. A February report from the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee noted that the administration had spent at least $40 million to deport about 300 migrants to secondary countries, a figure that has grown as more nations signed deals.
Legal Background and U.S. Court Protections
Many of the individuals transferred to Africa had established lives and pending legal claims inside the United States. Moreno de Armas arrived in Florida by boat in September 2016 under parole provisions of the former Wet Foot, Dry Foot
policy, according to government documents cited by Cbsnews. After his green card application under the Cuban Adjustment Act was denied because it was filed after his parole expired, he was arrested by immigration authorities in May 2025 and spent a year in custody.
Another deportee, 39-year-old Eritrea native Zena Gebrgzabher, had won protection from removal in immigration court in 2017. An immigration judge barred his deportation to Eritrea under the Convention Against Torture due to safety risks, though he was denied permanent asylum because of his conscription as an 18-year-old checkpoint guard in the Eritrean military.
Fernandez Garcia entered the United States near San Luis, Arizona, on August 17, 2021, after border agents released him pending removal proceedings or asylum adjudication. He worked as a truck driver in the U.S. before ICE agents arrested him on January 6, 2026, during a court hearing. Department of Homeland Security records confirmed his arrest in Miami, following which an immigration judge terminated his proceedings and he was processed for expedited removal.
Conditions and International Legal Concerns
Human rights advocates note that the program utilizes legal workarounds. Immigration lawyer Alma David told the Associated Press, as reported by usnews.com, that the practice functions as an indirect method to return asylum-seekers to unfamiliar regions when direct deportation is legally blocked.
Deportees stranded in the Central African Republic are housed in local hotels on 90-day visas, stripped of possessions, and given prescription medications to protect against illnesses from local food and water. The U.S. State Department maintains a Level 4 travel advisory warning Americans against visiting the nation due to armed conflict, political instability, and the presence of Russian mercenaries.
Similar transfers have occurred across multiple African nations. Liberia received its first group of 20 deportees on Thursday as part of an agreement projected to reach 1,200 arrivals, according to usnews.com. Other nations receiving third-country deportees include South Sudan, Eswatini, Rwanda, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Congo, Uganda, and Sierra Leone.
Rights organizations have raised concerns over the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits governments from returning individuals to territories where they face persecution or torture.