The Cascade the Experts Have Named

There is a particular kind of distance that a government can place between a person and their fate—not the distance of miles, but the distance created by paperwork, by agreements signed in rooms far away, by a policy that moves human beings from one country to another as though they were cargo to be rerouted. In Geneva, a group of independent experts has now named what that distance produces.

Two dozen UN human rights experts warned Monday that the Trump administration's policy of deporting migrants and asylum seekers to third countries is "triggering a cascade of human rights violations" that could have deadly consequences. The experts—including the UN special rapporteurs on migrants' rights and on torture—said the arrangements expose people to heightened risks of torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, and violations of the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning individuals to places where they face serious harm .

The numbers are substantial. According to the experts, at least 23,000 third-country nationals have already been sent to 29 countries and territories under these agreements. The deals have been struck with more than 35 nations, nearly a third of them in Africa, including Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, and South Sudan .

What makes the policy particularly concerning, the experts argue, is the fundamental disconnect between the people being deported and the places receiving them. "These migrants are being transferred to countries or territories with which they have no ties," the statement read, "which can be a traumatising and isolating experience that compounds harms already suffered which triggered their fleeing to the US in the first place" . Others are sent to places where they risk further violence or discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or human rights advocacy .

The experts also pointed to a structural problem: many of the receiving countries lack the capacity to protect the rights of the people sent there. "In many cases, these third countries are themselves engulfed in conflict, with their own populations facing displacement, starvation and debilitating poverty," the statement noted. These nations have "no asylum processing infrastructure, protective holding facilities or adequate health and medical services or sustainable reintegration options" .

The warnings come amid broader scrutiny of the administration's immigration enforcement. An investigation by the Guardian, as part of a consortium coordinated by the Forbidden Stories network, documented the ordeals of deportees, including an Iranian woman who had sought safety in the US after protesting against the regime and a gay man who had fled Ghana after being outed and hunted by family members .

The UN experts have contacted the United States and all 35 countries involved, calling for an immediate halt to the arrangements. "States cannot contract out of their international legal obligations," they stated, adding that "a state that knowingly aids or assists another state in conduct that violates non-refoulement or other human rights obligations may itself incur international responsibility" .

For Beatrice Njeri of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, which has represented people expelled from the US to third countries, the statement represents a significant moment. "It comes at a very important point in time when we are continuing to see extreme human rights violations that are super horrific," she said, citing two men expelled to Equatorial Guinea who had been bound, fitted with bags over their heads, beaten, and pushed down a flight of stairs . The diplomatic mission of the United States to the UN in Geneva has not yet responded to requests for comment .

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Sources: The Guardian, UN News, Anadolu Agency, Courthouse News Service, BSS, BTA, Tanjug