Image credit: The United States Institute of Peace
A country that cannot feed most of its own people has agreed to house migrants that America does not want. The Central African Republic, a nation that has endured repeated cycles of unrest since independence from France in 1960, leaving most of its 5.5 million people in poverty, has quietly signed on to the Trump administration’s expanding network of third-country deportation deals, two sources familiar with the arrangement have confirmed.
The agreement was hammered out during a May 18 meeting in the capital, Bangui, where a United States delegation led by Christian Jové Ehrhardt, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, held talks with Central African government officials. “Central African Republic will indeed take in, within the framework of agreements with the U.S., immigrants deported by American authorities,” a government official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. A diplomat based in the region independently confirmed that a deal had been reached.
The arrangement draws CAR into a growing club of African states that have accepted Washington’s deportees, people expelled not to their own home countries, but to third nations willing to take them in. The Trump administration has already deported migrants to Uganda, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo under similar agreements, with legal groups in Uganda describing the process as “an undignified, harrowing and dehumanising experience.” The U.S. has struck such third-country deportation deals with at least seven other African nations, many of them among the countries hit hardest by Trump administration policies that have restricted trade, aid, and migration.
Critics say the deals are designed to do an end-run around the courts. Rights groups argue that they enable U.S. authorities to bypass immigration court protections, although Washington maintains that the deportations are lawful. In several cases, those being deported had won legal orders from U.S. immigration judges specifically protecting them from removal. On May 22, U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal issued a temporary restraining order blocking the deportation of a Turkish national after learning that U.S. officials intended to remove the individual to the Central African Republic on May 26.
The Trump administration has spent at least $40 million to deport approximately 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a report by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Part of that money flows through the International Organization for Migration, which has confirmed it will assist deportees once they arrive in CAR. The agency has previously provided support to third-country deportees in other African countries, including the DRC. The U.S. this year awarded $85 million to the IOM for operations in the Central African Republic specifically.
The deal raises pointed questions about what CAR receives in return. President Faustin-Archange Touadera, who secured a third term in elections held last December, has long relied on Russia for security support but has signalled a renewed interest in Western partnerships, telling the Financial Times that he would welcome any country willing to develop CAR’s lithium, uranium, and gold reserves. Analysts say Russia’s ongoing security assistance comes in exchange for CAR’s resources, particularly gold and diamonds. Now, it appears Washington may be writing itself into that same calculus.
Neither source could confirm how many migrants would be sent to CAR, their nationalities, or when deportation flights might begin. The Central African presidency and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment. The Department of Homeland Security said all deportees were receiving full due process, and referred questions on agreement specifics to the State Department.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah