UN experts warn against US deportations to 3rd countries, citing risks

GENEVA

The UN human rights experts expressed serious concern Tuesday over the resumption of US deportations of migrants to third countries, following a recent Supreme Court ruling that lifted a block on the practice.

The experts warned that the policy, revived under the US President Donald Trump administration, risks exposing individuals to torture, enforced disappearance, or arbitrary deprivation of life.

"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," they said.

The current US approach permits migrants to be deported without an immigration hearing -- in some cases within a single day -- and to countries that are not their own. The experts emphasized that under international law, such decisions must include an individualized and country-specific assessment of potential harm.

They recalled that the US is bound by multiple treaties prohibiting refoulement, including the Convention against Torture and the 1967 Protocol to the Refugee Convention.

"Any diplomatic assurances as to the safety of transferred migrants provided by other countries cannot be taken at face value," they stressed.

Referring to a recent case involving eight deported migrants from Myanmar, Cuba, South Sudan, Mexico, Laos, and Vietnam, the experts said the individuals were held on a US military base in Djibouti before being flown to South Sudan.

"It is with deep worry that we understand that the individuals have now been moved," they said.

They also noted that they have raised their concerns previously in writing to the government of the US, adding they will continue to monitor developments.