USA | Report: US secret agreements on deportations to third countries

Not just Liberia: Almost all African countries have been asked by the USA to accept migrants. But the vast majority come to Mexico. Photo: AFP/Matthew Jacobs Nairobi. The “Office for Remigration” is responsible: According to research by an international consortium of journalists, the USA has already deported more than 25,000 migrants to third countries with which the people have no relationship since President Donald Trump took office. The government has allocated a budget of $410 million (more than 357 million euros) for this, the journalist network Forbidden Stories reported on Monday. A newly created department in the US State Department is in charge.

Since Trump began his second term in office in January 2025, Washington has struck deals with third countries to accept migrants who cannot be legally deported to their countries of origin. According to the report, a little-known department in the US State Department, the “Office of Remigration,” is responsible for the negotiations and the associated payments. This was founded in May 2025 and is headed by the 41-year-old diplomat Christian Jové Ehrhardt.

72 journalists from 23 media companies in 15 countries were involved in Forbidden Stories' research. According to the report, at least 25,447 people were deported from the United States to third countries by the end of August, with about 20,000 of them being deported to Mexico. The remainder were sent to 27 countries in Latin America, Africa and the Pacific. Agreements have already been concluded with seven other countries, the report said. The agreements therefore differ in terms of which nationalities are involved and whether the countries are prepared to accept migrants with criminal records.

The journalist network reports that 49 of the 54 African countries have been asked whether they would accept people from third countries. According to an investigation by the AFP news agency, Washington is using visa restrictions, among other things, to get African countries to accept deported migrants.

Forbidden Stories further reports how the “remigration” officer Ehrhardt traveled to Cameroon, which then concluded a declaration of intent with the USA last December to accept deported migrants. Shortly afterwards, a five-year program to support health care in the African country was signed, worth $400 million.

A month later, the US State Department announced that it would support the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Cameroon with $30 million to "facilitate the voluntary return of refugees and combat illegal immigration." The first plane carrying deported migrants landed in Cameroon on January 14th.

In other cases, according to the report, governments were paid directly to take in migrants: the Pacific island nation of Palau, with a population of fewer than 18,000, signed an agreement to take in 75 people from third countries in return for $7.5 million. However, only three people have arrived there so far. The African kingdom of Eswatini has taken in 32 people since July last year. There will be a total of 160 as part of a five million dollar agreement.

According to the Forbidden Stories report, internal US State Department documents show that $81 million of the budget is earmarked for deals with governments. The vast majority should therefore go to UN organizations, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) or the UNHCR, for which more than 178 and 123 million dollars are earmarked.

The involvement of the UN authorities has drawn criticism. UNHCR told Forbidden Stories that it was not part of the bilateral talks and that US funds would be used in accordance with its mandate to strengthen asylum systems.

An IOM spokesman told the journalist network that the decision to accept funds was "based on a single question: whether our participation improves the lives of migrants. In this case we strongly believe it does.”

Last May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described remigration as the official line of the US government. "Our goal is not to 'manage' migration, but to promote remigration," the State Department said in a statement in response to a statement by the United Nations International Migration Review Forum.

The concept of “remigration” is a fighting term of right-wing populist and right-wing extremist parties in Europe. This refers to the deportation of people with a migration background. Recently, the AfD election winner in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, caused outrage when, after his party's victory in the state election, he spoke of the possible use of armaments in "remigration and deportation offensives." AFP/nd

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