More than 25,000 people have been deported from the United States to countries other than their own since January 2025, prompting independent UN human rights experts to warn that some deportees face risks including torture, enforced disappearance and refoulement.
At least 25,447 third-country nationals were deported between January 2025 and 31 August 2026, according to data gathered and cross-checked by The Deportation Project, a six-month investigation coordinated by nonprofit group Forbidden Stories.
The figure includes people transferred by land as well as by air, with around 20,000 sent to Mexico.
In a statement issued in Geneva on 28 September, 24 independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council warned that the risks were no longer hypothetical.
The UN Special Procedures are in contact with the US and all 35 countries and territories concerned, while a special rapporteur from the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has engaged with a number of the African states involved.
Human Rights Experts call for an immediate halt to #US migration externalization arrangements spanning over 35 countries and territories, warning they put migrants at heightened risk of human rights violations, including torture and persecution.https://t.co/owDYsQSvrp pic.twitter.com/As74xnwkJX
— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) September 28, 2026
Where the Deportees Have Been Sent
The Deportation Project found that at least 35 countries had reached arrangements with Washington to accept third-country nationals since January 2025, with at least 28 having received people by 31 August.
Third Country Deportation Watch similarly records more than 25,000 transfers to at least 29 countries, with Libya among the destinations the US attempted to use.
Mexico has received the overwhelming majority, with the tracker estimating that roughly 20,000 third-country nationals were transferred there between 20 January 2025 and 15 August 2026, mostly by land.
The UN experts cited a separate total of at least 23,000 people sent to 29 countries and territories, with the governments involved spanning Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.
Torture, Detention and Pressure To Return Home
The experts warned that the arrangements can expose people to incommunicado detention, enforced disappearance, trafficking, family separation and inadequate access to lawyers.
They identified children, women, people with disabilities, trafficking victims, LGBT people, human rights defenders and stateless people among those at particular risk.
They also said some receiving countries lack adequate asylum procedures or healthcare and that some are affected by conflict, displacement and hunger. The experts warned that temporary reception arrangements can leave people vulnerable to onward transfer or pressure to return to their countries of origin.
They said a return cannot necessarily be considered voluntary where a person lacks lawful status, subsistence, independent legal advice or a viable alternative. Such circumstances, they warned, could contribute to an unlawful chain of refoulement.
🔴 A record surge in ICE activity has been reported over the past 90 days, with agents reportedly overcoming state laws to facilitate mass deportations, particularly in New Jersey and Oregon.
— Open Source Intelligence (@osint42) September 28, 2026
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Receiving Countries and UN Agencies Put on Notice
UN experts rejected the idea that responsibility ends once a plane leaves US soil. 'States cannot contract out of their international legal obligations,' they said, before adding: 'Cooperation does not dilute responsibility.'
They also addressed the International Organization for Migration, saying its involvement 'must never legitimise' arrangements that expose people to torture or refoulement.
According to internal documents, the State Department's Office of Remigration had planned to spend at least $410 million in payments to governments and humanitarian organisations as part of the deportation agreements.
The UN experts have sent communications to the US and all 35 countries and territories concerned, warning that a state that knowingly aids or assists conduct violating non-refoulement or other human rights obligations may itself incur international responsibility.
The warning comes as the policy faces legal challenges in the US, after a federal appeals court ruled on 18 September that migrants must receive meaningful notice and an opportunity to raise claims before removal to a third country.
The experts have called on every government and territory involved to halt the arrangements immediately and restore access to fair asylum procedures, due process, independent monitoring and accountability.
