Behind its high clay-coloured walls, 20-odd people share dorm rooms sparsely furnished with bunk beds. Several days after her arrival, Barbara* is still struggling to get her bearings. The young woman had fled persecution in her homeland Ethiopia to the US, hoping to build a new life for herself.
But in April this year, she was deported without warning by US immigration authorities to the Central African country of Cameroon, a country utterly unknown to her. Born in the state of Tigray in the north of Ethiopia, Barbara left her country after war broke out between federal government forces and the region’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The conflict is believed to have killed more than 600,000 people between 2020 and 2024.
Fleeing persecution, she travelled to Brazil at the end of 2024 before making her way to the US border by bus. The young woman was detained by border police on arrival and sent to an immigration detention centre in Louisiana. Several months later, a judge granted her “withholding of removal”, a legal protection distinct from asylum that nonetheless prevents recipients from being deported to their home country on the grounds that they would more likely than not face persecution.
Watch moreHuman Rights Watch releases new report detailing 'unrelenting persecution of Tigrayans' Despite this measure, Barbara would remain in the detention centre for several more months – until she was abruptly bundled on board a flight to Cameroon on April 28, 2026. They put me on a plane and I landed here.” Within the walls of the Yaoundé migrant centre, people from almost a dozen African countries – Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe – all have similar stories. Soraya* said she fled Ghana after her family found out about her sexual orientation.
To be granted “withholding of removal” in the US, an applicant must show that they have more than a 50 percent risk508.pdf) of suffering persecution in their home country for reasons of race, religion, nationality, belonging to a particular social group or for their political beliefs. But this protection does nothing to prevent recipients from being deported to countries deemed “safe” – that is to say, where deportees wouldn’t be exposed to the same risk of persecution that they would in their homeland. The administration of US President Donald Trump has wasted no time in launching itself at this loophole.
Having promised to bring an end to what he describes as an “invasion” of migrants, Trump has struck a number of bilateral agreements with what have been dubbed "third countries". The “temporary migrant shelter” in Yaoundé. © Forbidden Stories The aim is clear: to expel migrants who are legally protected from being deported to their home countries, and to send a warning to those hoping to follow in their footsteps. These agreements have facilitated the deportation of more than 25,000 people.
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