Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants on externalization of migration governance
Human Rights First provides this submission in response to the call for inputs on trends in externalization of migration governance. Since early 2025, the United States has implemented an opaque web of bilateral agreements and informal deals that send asylum seekers and other immigrants—with little to no warning or chance to raise fears of persecution and torture—to countries with which they have no ties and where many are subject to arbitrary detention, torture, or return to danger in the very countries they once fled. In a new tracker, Banished by Bargain: Third Country Deportation Watch, Human Rights First and Refugees International have documented these arrangements, which, as of the date of this submission, included: Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Liberia, Libya, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda and Uzbekistan.
These arrangements fall into several categories, including 1) arrangements to incarcerate forcibly transferred people in prisons; 2) arrangements for temporary transfer before onward return to home country; 3) “asylum cooperative agreements” (ACA) or attempts at “safe third country agreements” (STCA); and 4) other types of arrangements that may include detention, onward transfer, and/or remaining in the third country.
