United States President Donald Trump‘s administration has deported thousands of undocumented immigrants since taking office last month, in a crackdown that critics argue is violating immigrants’ rights to due process.
During his first month in office, the Trump administration has deported 37,660 people, according to data from the US Department of Homeland Security, often to their country of origin, but sometimes to third countries.
Several Central American countries have accepted deportation flights. While their own citizens form a bulk of those coming from the US, these nations have also allowed the Trump administration to send nationals of other, mostly Asian, countries, including India, Pakistan and Iran. Last week, about 300 deportees arrived in Panama and more than 100 arrived in Costa Rica, the two countries said. The US has released no official details about the number of flights and exact number of immigrants.
But why is Trump sending deportees to third countries instead of their countries of origin? And why are these countries accepting the deportees?
Which third countries are accepting deportation flights from the US?
Last week, Panama became the first country to accept 119 deportees from other countries.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said on February 13 that the migrants were from countries including China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mulino said it was the first of an expected three flights, and about 360 such deportees are expected to arrive in Panama.
Panama’s Security Minister Frank Abrego said on February 18 that 299 foreign deportees were being detained in a hotel, indicating more deportees had arrived in Panama since the first flight landed the previous week. These migrants were from 10 countries, including Iran, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China.
At least 135 people, including children, from Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan and Russia arrived in Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, on February 20.
The US transported 177 Venezuelan migrants from its military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Honduras on February 20. From there, Venezuelan authorities flew them on to Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, on flag carrier Conviasa.
Why is Trump deporting people to third countries instead of their country of origin?
Experts offered multiple reasons.
“It is more expeditious, limits access to US rights [for migrants], and is intended to send a message to would-be asylum seekers and other migrants not to come,” Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications at the Migration Policy Institute, told Al Jazeera.
Tanya Golash-Boza, the executive director of the University of California Washington Center, said while she has not seen an official explanation for why migrants are being sent to third countries, it is “reasonable to assume that DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is doing this because their detention centres are full”.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities have a 38,521-bed capacity, but are detaining close to 42,000 migrants, CBS News reported, citing internal DHS data. Amid a recent uptick in migrant arrests, ICE has released some immigrants early this month, CBS reported.
Golash-Boza told Al Jazeera that once the migrants leave US soil, “they lose access to any semblance of rights they may have had due to their presence in the US.”
Mittelstadt explained that deportees sent to third countries do not have protections under US law. She added that in the third countries, international standards of protection, “including non-refoulement”, may not be upheld. Non-refoulement is a principle of international law that forbids a country from sending an individual back to a nation they fled if that place is unsafe for them.
When it comes to deportees from countries that the US does not have strong formal diplomatic ties with, these Central American nations serve another purpose for the Trump administration.
“Trump is using Honduras, and may use others, because the US does not have decent relations with Venezuela, but Honduras does and is a useful go-between,” Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer, told Al Jazeera.
ICE has previously cited countries including India, Pakistan and China as “uncooperative”, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “fully prepared” to take back undocumented immigrants, during a White House visit in February.
According to Smith, there were 195 migrants being held at Guantanamo, of which 177 were sent to Venezuela and one was sent to the US, with 17 remaining in the facility.
Smith had told Al Jazeera that the detainees at Guantanamo “have all the legal rights of [US] residents there, including the entire Constitution and the right to a proper court”.
He recently said the Trump administration is taking people to the detention centre to scare them.
“It is the most notorious torture prison in the world – whereupon they will offer fewer objections to leaving and going back, ultimately, to their home countries,” he said. “The Trump administration is trying to get people out of Guantanamo before we have time to get them into proper courts.”
During his first term between 2019 and 2020, Trump sent immigrants on a flight to Guatemala, but this operation was halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many human rights organisations have opposed placing migrants in countries to which they had no connection.
Pro-immigrant rights groups, including the US civil rights nonprofit, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), sued Trump over this plan. Trump’s first term ended before the case was resolved and the case was put on hold while the Biden administration altered the government’s policies.
Why have third countries agreed to take deportees?
Central American countries have agreed to take foreign deportees under political and economic pressure from Trump, analysts say.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said his country is helping its “economically powerful brother from the north”, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday, in an allusion to the mismatch in power that allows the US to coerce smaller neighbours.
Panamanians have also faced threats from Trump, who has promised to acquire the Panama Canal, one of the busiest water channels in the world, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
The deals with Costa Rica and Panama were announced earlier this month when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the Central American countries. Some observers believe the two countries agreed after being threatened with tariffs. Trump has already imposed tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico and has used tariffs as leverage against others.
Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all Colombian goods after Bogota refused to accept two US military aircraft carrying Colombian deportees last month. Colombian President Gustavo Petro initially responded by threatening retaliatory tariffs, but eventually backed down and agreed to accept deportation flights. Colombia was spared the tariffs.
Where will the deportees go from the third countries?
The deportees will be held in third countries until their repatriation is arranged.
The deportees in Panama are being held in rooms at Panama City’s Decapolis Hotel, guarded by the police. Videos taken from outside the transparent windows showed some migrants holding up signs saying “help us” and “we are not safe in our country.” Others used hand gestures to indicate they were being deprived of their freedoms. On February 19, news surfaced that a Chinese woman, Zheng Lijuan, had escaped the hotel and the police were searching for her.
Panamanian authorities have said more than 40 percent of these migrants do not want to return to their country of origin, citing security concerns among other reasons.
Panama’s Security Minister Abrego said 171 of the 299 deportees have agreed to return to their country of origin, and at least 13 have done so already, according to authorities.
The migrants refusing to return to their countries of origin are being held at a camp in the remote Darien province, which shares a border with Colombia. In a statement on February 19, Panama’s Security Ministry said 97 such migrants have been transferred to Darien camp.
The migrants in Costa Rica will be detained for up to six weeks in a rural holding facility close to the border with Panama. They will be subsequently flown back to their country of origin, according to Omer Badilla, Costa Rica’s deputy minister of the interior and police. The operation will be funded by the US.
“Countries receiving these returnees temporarily face significant challenges in holding and returning them, and there is no contemplation of asylum in those countries,” Mittelstadt from the Migration Policy Institute said.
“While these countries are being described as a ‘bridge’, in reality, they are a dead end for these returnees.”