Expelled from the United States to Africa: 1,200 spots in Liberia, $400 million promised to Cameroon

More than 16,000 people were expelled from the United States to countries that are not their own between January 2025 and August 2026, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security provided to the Deportation Data Project at the universities of Berkeley and UCLA, and analyzed by Al Jazeera on October 15, 2026. Refugees International and Human Rights First suggest a total exceeding 25,000 people. Several African states are among the destinations.

Agreements backed by promises of money

Liberia has agreed to host up to 1,200 deportees, reports Al Jazeera; in return, Washington extended the validity of certain visas from 12 to 36 months and committed $124 million for health services. Cameroon has been receiving nationals from third-party states since December 2025, in exchange for $30 million intended for UNHCR work and $400 million promised over several years for health. Eswatini, for its part, has agreed to keep deportees in prison.

In a 125-page report published on October 8, 2026, Human Rights Watch identifies 536 people sent to African countries between January 20, 2025, and August 5, 2026, based on figures from the U.S. agency ICE, and documents "safe third country" agreements with Cape Verde, Liberia, Uganda, and Rwanda. Many of these agreements are not public, the organization emphasizes.

What the expelled individuals describe

According to the 24 testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch, 46 people arrived in Cameroon on five flights in September 2026 and were held in public buildings in Yaoundé, with insufficient medical care and food. About sixty were kept under armed guard in a hotel in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Others were isolated in the Matsapha prison in Eswatini. Some remained shackled during flights lasting more than eighteen hours. A U.S. official, cited anonymously in the report, summarizes the objective: "The point is to scare people."

A question of African sovereignty

Both U.S. law and the Convention Against Torture prohibit sending a person to a place where they risk persecution. U.S. courts have deemed these transfers illegal, but the Supreme Court allowed them to continue in a September 2026 decision, Al Jazeera recalls. UN experts speak of a "cascade" of human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch is calling on African states to refuse any new transfer agreements, to suspend existing ones, and to apply Resolution 645 of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The question posed to the continent's capitals is one of price: accepting health dollars to serve as a place of relegation means accepting that the dignity of these individuals is being negotiated somewhere other than in Africa.