A woman from Iran was aboard a deportation flight that arrived Friday in the Central African Republic, carrying approximately two dozen migrants removed from the United States, according to legal advocates familiar with the case.
The flight represents another instance of controversial arrangements between the U.S. and various African and Latin American countries to accept deportees who are not citizens of those nations, lawyers say.
The Central African Republic joins at least nine other African countries that have entered into agreements to receive third-country nationals being removed by American immigration authorities.
These arrangements, many of which remain confidential, are components of broader immigration enforcement efforts that have resulted in thousands of deportations to nearly two dozen nations where the deportees are not from, according to advocacy groups.
Immigration attorneys describe these third-country deportations as a strategy to circumvent legal protections and pressure asylum seekers to return to their countries of origin.
The exact number of migrants on the flight that departed Louisiana late Thursday bound for Bangui, the Central African Republic’s capital, remained uncertain.
Ali Rahnama, who leads the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund and has maintained contact with some of the migrants, reported that Thursday’s deportees included individuals from Iran, Jordan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Afghanistan.
Immigration attorney Sahar Jalili Pawelski revealed that three Iranian women were initially scheduled for deportation to the Central African Republic. However, two received emergency judicial orders temporarily halting their removal while courts examine the legality of the government’s actions.
According to both Jalili Pawelski and Rahnama, all three women had previously received court protection against deportation to Iran after judges determined they faced legitimate threats of persecution based on political or religious grounds.
An elderly man from Syria was also slated for deportation to the Central African Republic but obtained an emergency temporary order preventing his removal, according to his attorney Margaret Stock.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security declined to discuss the specific case Thursday, stating it does not confirm upcoming removal operations for security purposes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not provide immediate responses to comment requests.
The Central African Republic has endured years of violence between government-aligned forces and rebel groups and ranks among the world’s most impoverished nations. Despite significant gold deposits, one-third of the population survives on less than $2 daily.
The country also served as an early location for Wagner, a Russian mercenary organization active across Africa. This group has provided security for President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and engaged rebel forces in combat.
The nation maintains one of Russia’s strongest alliances in Africa, though recent friction has emerged between Touadéra and Russia following Moscow’s demands to replace Wagner with the government-operated Africa Corps.
Rahnama from the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund voiced alarm about sending an Iranian asylum seeker to the Central African Republic, citing Russia’s significant influence there and Moscow’s close security relationship with Iran.
