US deports Iranian pro-democracy activist to CAR

The US has deported a number of migrants to the Central African Republic (CAR), one of the world's poorest and most troubled states, under a controversial deal that allows Washington to deport migrants who cannot be sent back to their home countries, reports DW. The flight that took off from Louisiana on Thursday night was carrying some two dozen migrants, including an Iranian pro-democracy activist, her lawyer has said. It landed in Bangui on Friday. Other migrants set to be on the flight included nationals of Jordan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Afghanistan, according to Ali Rahnama, interim executive director of the Iranian American Legal Defence Fund. No details were given on where the deportees would be housed or the duration of their stay in CAR. ‘In all of my filings ​I submitted tons of ‌information about how this was super dangerous. These individuals are being removed from the United States and abandoned in a country where they have no status, no connection and no support network. We fear they will ultimately be forced to return to the countries they originally fled,’ Emily Trostle, the lawyer of the Iranian deported activist, told Reuters.

Trostle said three Iranian women who had fled persecution at home were at risk of deportation but only one of them actually ended up on the deportation flight. The IALDF said they faced deportation after their asylum claims were denied for violating a rule which requires them to first apply in countries they transit through before reaching the US. The rule was vacated by a California federal court in May. The IALDF warned that deporting Iranians to CAR was ‘a potentially fatal action.’ It especially pointed to the close ties between the country's administration and Moscow, a solid intelligence ally of Iran, according to DW. The Trump administration signed a number of widely criticised deals with African and Latin American nations to take third-country deportees the US could not deport back to their home countries. The often-secret deals have been forged with countries such as the Central African Republic and Ghana, among at least seven other African nations.

Full report on the DW site