Since Donald Trump returned to power, more than 25,000 people have been deported by the United States to countries other than their own. Investigations by RFI as part of The Deportation Project—a coordinated effort by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism network—have exposed a global system backed by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Arsaalan Saleh Fard, a 25-year-old Iranian, fled his country hoping to find refuge in the United States. He had shared slogans and resistance texts online following the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s headscarf rules. Having also converted to Christianity, he learned he was the target of an arrest warrant. In February 2025, after a long journey from Venezuela, Saleh Fard crossed the Mexico-US border near San Diego and turned himself in to seek asylum. He was immediately detained.
Around ten days later, Saleh Fard was put on a flight to Panama—a country with which he had no connection. He was among 299 migrants deported there on three flights organized in the weeks after Trump took office. None was Panamanian. His account was gathered by The Washington Post as part of The Deportation Project.
Around two-thirds of those sent to Panama agreed to return to their countries of origin, but 112 people who said they feared persecution there were left stranded. Saleh Fard was among them. He spent the next 18 months in Panama without assistance or the right to work, in a country where he did not speak the language. “I feel completely lost,” he said.
Between 20 January 2025 and 31 August 2026, at least 25,447 people were sent from the US to 28 countries that were not their country of origin, data verified by Forbidden Stories shows. At least 105 flights were identified during that period, although the total is incomplete. Countries such as Ecuador regularly receive deportation flights carrying their own citizens, making it difficult to identify small numbers of people of other nationalities on the same planes. Most transfers to Mexico were made by bus and are therefore harder to document.
Financial incentives and political pressure
Carrying out “the largest deportation operation in American history” was Trump’s promise during his second presidential campaign. His administration set a target of up to 1 million removals in a year, with deportations to third countries forming part of that drive. In February 2025, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) instructed agents to consider sending people more systematically to third countries when they could not be returned to their country of origin due to the risks they faced there.
The State Department was also reorganized, creating an Office of Remigration to help negotiate agreements with foreign governments. Some of these were secret and involved financial incentives and political pressure. In less than two years, the administration built a network across Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean of countries willing to accept deportees who were not their own citizens.
The terms of one such agreement have emerged in Eswatini, a small southern African kingdom and Africa’s last absolute monarchy. RFI’s sister broadcaster France 24, also a partner in The Deportation Project, obtained a deal signed in May by Prime Minister Russell Dlamini under which the country agreed to take 160 people deported from the US. The document sets out a payment of $5.1 million to strengthen Eswatini’s border and migration capacity. Ministers have given contradictory accounts of the money involved, with Dlamini saying publicly there was no financial compensation.
Among those sent there was Dung Nguyen, a Vietnamese man who had previously been convicted of a crime in the US and had been living there after his release from prison. “I had never heard of Eswatini,” Nguyen told France 24. He said US officials told the deportees that whether or not they signed the papers they were given, “we’re still going to get left here.”
The sums involved in agreements with foreign governments extend far beyond the $5.1 million set out in the Eswatini document. Internal documents seen by The Washington Post show at least $410 million was mobilized to help secure such agreements.
From Mexico to Saint Lucia
The destinations for deportees varied widely, as did the numbers involved. Mexico accounted for the vast majority, with around 20,000 people sent there, while Guatemala took in 2,981 people. In Africa, 34 people—including Vietnamese and Laotian nationals—were imprisoned in Eswatini. Another 63 people, including Cubans and Brazilians, were sent to Equatorial Guinea. The numbers were far smaller in Caribbean countries. Saint Lucia took in an initial group of six people from five countries—Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, Jordan, and Indonesia.
By 31 August, 28 countries had received people deported from the US who were not their citizens, while at least 35 had reached agreements with Washington. The network has continued to expand. Guyana joined the list on 4 September, receiving six Cuban and Afghan nationals. Mexico is an exception: no formal agreement has been made public, but an arrangement operates in practice.
However, the system suffered a legal setback in the US last week. A federal appeals court upheld a decision striking down the rules governing these transfers, finding that people had not been given enough advance notice or an adequate opportunity to challenge being sent to a country where they feared persecution. The Trump administration could still take the case to the Supreme Court.
For Saleh Fard, meanwhile, the uncertainty continued long after he was sent to Panama. After 18 months there, he eventually left for Mexico.