The Guardian’s investigation reports that the Trump administration struck secret third-country deportation arrangements that put more than 25,000 people on the move to countries they had no connection with. An Iranian woman the paper calls Nika was rearrested days after a judge ordered her freed and flown in shackles to the Central African Republic, a country she had never heard of and that the US State Department warns citizens not to visit. Refugees International and Human Rights First counted about 20,000 people bused to Mexico and more than 5,000 sent by air to countries across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and central Asia, often after US judges had found they faced risks if returned. Human rights lawyers described the third-country arrangements as a “show of force” designed to deter migrants and asylum seekers, and the Guardian joined 23 other media organizations in the Deportation Project, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, to document the covert program. The reporting says the removals largely operated behind closed doors, leaving people stranded in dangerous or unknown places and raising questions about oversight of the contracts and procedures that enabled the flights.
