The Trump administration plans to deport a number of Iranians and other migrants to the Central African Republic, a chronically unstable country racked by violence and poverty, two lawyers and an official briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The Iranians include two women who face potential torture and persecution if they are forced to go back to Iran, their lawyer, Emily Trostle, said. One is a Christian convert and the other is a pro-democracy activist, she added.
The US State Department and the presidency in the Central African Republic, which recently reached a deal to accept so-called third-country deportees from the US, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Both the women were detained upon arriving in the US in November 2024, Trostle said. They applied for asylum in the US and had secured a form of protection known as withholding of removal from a US immigration judge, Trostle said.
Obtaining that protection meant judges found they faced a risk greater than 50% of being persecuted or tortured in Iran.
The official briefed on the matter told Reuters the first flight to the Central African Republic under the deal was expected to take about 20 people, also including Syrians and Afghans. The plane could leave as early as Thursday, the two lawyers said.
A Turkish national who fled political persecution and also had withholding of removal may be on board as well, said the person's lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Third-country deportation deals
The Trump administration has used third-country deportation deals, including with Central African Republic's neighbor the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is now facing an Ebola outbreak, to deport people it can't legally send home.
Washington has defended the deals as lawful, though rights groups and advocates have said the details of the deals are opaque and many of the deportees are ultimately repatriated.
The US and Israel launched heavy strikes on Iran in late February, kicking off a now three-month-old war.
US President Donald Trump told reporters in April that he thought the Iranian people should rise up against the government in Iran if a ceasefire were declared, but understood that it was too dangerous for them to do so.
“At the very moment the United States is promising the Iranian people freedom and support for standing against the Islamic Republic, it is sending Iranian asylum seekers who fled that same regime back toward their demise," said Ali Rahnama, interim legal director at the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund.
'Hundreds' could be deported under deal
The deportees will be held in apartments in Central African Republic's capital Bangui and are not expected to be repatriated immediately, the briefed official said.
Hundreds of migrants could ultimately be deported there under the deal, the official added.
The plan to deport Iranians was reported earlier on Thursday by The New York Times.
The US Department of Homeland Security said last week that all deportees would receive full due process.
A spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration said the agency would "provide post-arrival humanitarian assistance" to the migrants sent to Bangui, at the request of the Central African government.
The spokesperson said the IOM was not involved in the removals and would provide assistance "on a strictly voluntary basis and respecting applicable international standards."
The US this year awarded $85 million to the IOM for operations in Central African Republic.
The country has endured repeated cycles of unrest since independence from France in 1960, leaving most of its 5.5 million people in poverty.