Judith Bellmunt Gras speaks about the US formulating deportation deals with third-countries potentially as a way to avoid the principle of non-refoulement.
As of 5 April, the Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to take in deported immigrants from the US, joining in a list of nations that have made third-country deportation deals with the US. Third-country deportations refer to the deportation of immigrants to countries they are not originally from. According to a report from the US senate's committee on foreign relations, the Trump administration has "likely" spent more than $40m (€34m) in third-country deportations up to January 2026, with the total cost being "unknown".
The Trump administration currently has deals with at least 16 countries to accept immigrants, these include Cameroon, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Mexico, Panama, Poland, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Uzbekistan.
The US has also entered into agreements with at least 11 other countries although they are yet to take transfers, or least publicly. These include, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cabo Verde, Dominica, Guyana, Liberia, Palau, Paraguay, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Uganda. The most recent agreements have been with Sierra Leone and DR Congo, the former of which was finalized in late March.
The Congolese government says the agreement is "temporary" and reflects the country's "commitment to human dignity and international solidarity." There is no information on how many deportees DR Congo will accept. Facilities have been prepared near the capital Kinshasa for migrants, and the Congolese government says the US will pay for all the expenses of migrant arrivals. The Congolese government says no automatic transfer of the deportees to their home countries is planned, “Each situation will be subject to individual review in accordance with the laws of the Republic and national security requirements.”
Despite this, a report by the US Democratic staff of Foreign Relations Committee reveals there are cases of the US paying third-countries to deport immigrants to their countries of origin, after already paying for them to be deported there in the first place. This shows these third-country deportation deals can and are sometimes used by the US as a loophole to the non-refoulement principle protected by international law. The principle of non refoulment protects migrants from being sent back to their country when they face a risk of persecution, torture, or serious human rights violations.
Simultaneously, some argue this is done to create fear and incite self-deportation. “This is a scare tactic for them be able to tell people here in the US: if you don’t self-deport, you could get sent to South Sudan. You could get sent to Eswatini,” a member of the Foreign Relations Committee told the Guardian.
Third Country Deportation Watch say that at the time of many of these agreements, the US imposed or threatened third countries with visa bans, tariffs, and other trade barriers, and after the deals, the US has condoned corruption, repression, and violations of human rights by governments in third countries.
“The United States urges or coerces countries to accept migrants who are not their citizens, often through arrangements that are costly, wasteful and poorly monitored. It catalogs the costly and ineffective operations, waste of taxpayer funds through unnecessary removals, concerning lack of oversight on U.S. funds to foreign governments and secret deals that do not serve American interests.Taken together, these actions have created an expensive and dangerous form of shadow diplomacy that prioritizes the appearance of toughness over the security of Americans”, says the report.
This comes after the US, under Trump, mediated a peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda, for which implementation remains a challenge. All the while, the US is also negotiating a minerals deal with DR Congo to gain access to reserves of key metals such as cobalt, tantalum, lithium and copper.