Human Rights First and Refugees International Third Country Deportation Watch Details the Expanding Scope and Toll of Third Country Transfer Agreements

Washington D.C.—Today, Human Rights First and Refugees International released an update of its Banished by Bargain: Third Country Deportation Watch tracker that exposes the growing scale, secrecy, and human toll of the Trump administration’s third country transfer agreements.

Through an opaque and cruel system of forced third country transfers by the U.S. government, thousands of individuals have been subjected to arbitrary detention, family separations, and chain refoulement in third countries. The fear of that fate is designed to pressure asylum seekers in the United States to abandon their legal claims and return to the very harm they fled. The prospect of removal to a third country also hangs over the heads of immigrants who have been granted protection from removal to their home countries and lived for years in the United States.

New findings from the tracker update reveal:

• Since January 2025, the Trump administration has entered into third country transfer agreements with more than 35 countries. These opaque agreements not only make these countries around the world complicit in the administration’s cruel deportation campaign, but also make them collaborators in these violations of international refugee and human rights law. Our latest website update includes new country-specific pages for the Bahamas, Grenada, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic, updated country pages related to long-standing agreements, and an interactive map that illustrates the types of agreements as well as the number of people transferred.
• Between January 20, 2025 and August 15,2026, the U.S. government has forcibly transferred more than 23,000 people to 26 third countries where many have no legal or personal ties, and many have been subjected to arbitrary detention, family separations, and chain refoulement. Almost 20,000 of these individuals have been sent to Mexico, more than 2,700 individuals to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 330 individuals to countries in Africa, and more than 200 people to other regions.
• Between June and mid-August, the Trump administration conducted 33 removal flights carrying third country nationals to 12 countries, including first-time flights to the Central African Republic, Belize, and Dominica, and repeated flights to Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ghana, Moldova, Panama, Paraguay, and Sierra Leone. Additional forced third country transfers also took place on an ongoing monthly basis to Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. Refugees International and the Global Strategic Litigation Council will soon release a report telling the stories, and recommending improved treatment, of third country nationals forcibly transferred to Costa Rica on weekly deportation flights since April 2026.
• The administration is increasingly subjecting people with grants of protection in the United States to third country removals. The vast majority of third country nationals on flights to African countries since January 2026 have been granted protection against removal to likely persecution or torture in their countries of origin by U.S. immigration judges. Other individuals granted these protections have been sent to Mexico. From third countries, many of these individuals have been summarily refouled, or returned from there to their countries of origin.

“The last three months have made clear what these third country agreements are actually about: undermining refugee protection in the United States and around the world,” said Yael Schacher, Director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International and Third Country Deportation Watch co-lead. “The goal of Third Country Deportation Watch is to show that this policy is a costly race to the bottom for refugee rights and to encourage working together across borders to envision more humane and effective migration policies. The best way to combat fear is with solidarity and support for refugees who are being arbitrarily punished, disappeared, and pawned off through a corrupt and unaccountable foreign policy.”

“Third Country Deportation Watch shows how the Trump administration is escalating its attack on people granted protection by U.S. immigration judges based on their fear of persecution or torture, targeting them for removal to countries where they have no ties,” said Savi Arvey, Director of Policy for Refugee and Immigrant Rights, Human Rights First and Third Country Deportation Watch co-lead. “In the past three months, we’ve seen refugees refouled back to harm in the very countries from which they fled, some within hours of arrival in a third country, and LGBTQ+ individuals sent to countries where their identity is criminalized and they are at risk of severe violence.”

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Sarah Sheffer at ssheffer@refugeesinternational.org and the HRF Press Team at press@humanrightsfirst.org.