Four Cubans, Brazilian, Cameroonian refused Liberia, sent to Equatorial Guinea
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed, according to a joint investigation by The Guardian and 23 other media organizations coordinated by Forbidden Stories. She is among thousands of people deported from the United States under shadowy deals struck with dozens of countries since President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, the Guardian reported in its First Thing newsletter on Monday.
On August 20, four Cubans, a Brazilian and a Cameroonian refused to disembark in Liberia and were sent to Equatorial Guinea instead, the newsletter reported.
The Guardian joined 23 other media organizations in the investigation, called the Deportation Project, which reviewed documents and interviewed more than 100 people about the US drive to extinguish unauthorized immigration. The investigation also documented people from Peru and Colombia sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo under the third-country arrangements.
Since returning to office in 2025, the Trump administration has deported more than 25,000 people to countries that are not their own, the investigation found. The administration has struck 35 deals allowing it to deport migrants and asylum seekers to countries where they often have no connections.
Human rights lawyers have described the so-called third-country national arrangements as part of a “show of force” by the United States intended to discourage migrants and asylum seekers from entering, the Guardian reported.
On Friday, a US federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration’s third-country removals policy was unlawful. A three-judge panel unanimously agreed that it violated due process, but the government has 90 days to appeal the decision and is expected to do so.