U.S. Covertly Flies Migrants to Cameroon

(MENAFN) The United States has been covertly deporting migrants to Cameroon — including individuals with no connection to the Central African country and some shielded by court-ordered protections — in a widening deportation operation that has drawn sharp legal and humanitarian scrutiny, multiple outlets have reported.

Eight migrants landed in the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé, on Monday, weeks after nine others were similarly flown there in January as part of what U.S. officials have characterized as a third-country deportation program, media reported, citing lawyers familiar with the cases. None of those deported hold Cameroonian citizenship, and several had reportedly been granted protection orders by U.S. immigration judges citing credible fears of persecution in their countries of origin.

The New York Times first reported Saturday that the initial group of nine was transported from Louisiana to Cameroon aboard a Department of Homeland Security aircraft — the detainees allegedly unaware of their destination until they were placed in handcuffs and chains mid-flight.

Washington has disclosed no formal public arrangement with Yaoundé to receive third-country nationals, and the Cameroonian government has not issued any statement acknowledging the arrivals.

The deportations are part of a broader — and controversial — strategy pursued by President Donald Trump's administration to offload migrants deemed ineligible to remain in the U.S. onto willing foreign governments, primarily across Africa. Last November, Eswatini confirmed receiving $5.1 million from Washington in exchange for accepting deportees with no ties to the southern African nation. Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda have each received $7.5 million under similar arrangements, according to Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen. South Sudan, Ghana, and Uganda have also entered into agreements to host removed non-citizens.

A report published last week by Democratic staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee revealed the U.S. has spent more than $40 million through January 2026 on such agreements — deals the report said were struck through "opaque negotiations with little transparency to Congress or the public."

The African Union has urged member states to reject arrangements that risk converting the continent into a "dumping zone" for arbitrary expulsions. UN human rights experts have separately cautioned that the Trump administration's deportation practices may breach internationally recognized principles of migrant protection.

The Department of Homeland Security, however, has pushed back against the criticism, defending the removals as lawful and "essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people."

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