UN Experts Alarmed By Resumption Of US Deportations To Third Countries, Warn Authorities To Assess Risks Of Torture
The Trump administration's deportation policy allows irregular migrants to be transferred to countries other than their own.
'To protect people from torture and other prohibited cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, enforced disappearances, and risks to life, they must be given an opportunity to express their objections to removal in a legally supervised procedure,' the experts said.
'The US' expedited removal procedure could allow people to be taken to a country other than their own in as little as a single day, without an immigration court hearing or other appearance before a judge,' they said.
'International law is clear that no one shall be sent anywhere where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to serious human rights violations such as torture, enforced disappearance or arbitrary deprivation of life,' the experts said. 'That assessment must be individual as well as country-specific.'
They recalled that the United States had accepted obligations to prevent refoulement as enshrined, inter alia, in Article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, implicit in Articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 33 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees pursuant to its ratification of the 1967 Protocol.
'Other countries that have attempted to outsource their responsibilities have left people stranded in far away places, arbitrarily detained for years on end, and at risk of torture and other inhuman treatment, trafficking, or enforced disappearance,' the experts warned.
'Any diplomatic assurances as to the safety of transferred migrants provided by other countries cannot be taken at face value. The US is required to make a full assessment under its non-refoulement obligations.'
'We urge the United States' Government to refrain from any further removals to third countries, to ensure effective access to legal assistance for those facing deportation, and all such procedures to be subject to independent judicial oversight.'
On 23 June 2025, the Supreme Court suspended a lower court order that had blocked forcible removals of foreign nationals to countries not their own due to concerns they had been implemented without adequate human rights safeguards. The specific case involved eight migrants from Myanmar, Cuba, South Sudan, Mexico, Laos and Vietnam, who were deported on a plane reported to be destined for South Sudan.
'It is with deep worry that we understand that the individuals have now been moved from Djibouti, where they were being held on a US military base, and onto South Sudan.'
The experts have raised their concerns previously in writing to the Government of the United States and will continue to monitor developments.
*The experts: Alice Jill Edwards, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Gehad Madi, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Morris Tidball-Binz, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Margaret Satterthwaite , the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Ben Saul, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Siobhán Mullally, the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Gabriella Citroni, (Chair-Rapporteur), Grażyna Baranowska (Vice-Chair), Aua Baldé, Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, Mohammed Al-Obaidi, the .
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