U.S. deports Afghan protected from Taliban to Central African Republic

The United States deported dozens of people to the Central African Republic on Saturday, including an Afghan man who had been granted protection from being sent back to Afghanistan because of fears he could be persecuted by the Taliban, his lawyer and advocacy groups said.

The man, who is in his early 20s, was among 12 Afghans and eight Iranians on a deportation flight that landed in Bangui, the Central African Republic’s capital, said Savi Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First. Several people from Nepal and Nicaragua were also on the flight, Arvey said.

Alma David, the Afghan man’s lawyer, said a U.S. judge had granted him protection against deportation to Afghanistan because of Taliban threats tied to his family’s work with U.S. forces. Court documents seen by The Associated Press said his family in Afghanistan had received threats from the Taliban because his brothers supported the U.S. military.

One of his brothers lives in the United States and served in the Afghan National Army, which worked with the U.S. military before the Taliban took power in 2021, David said. Another brother was a U.S.-trained pilot who was killed by the Taliban, she said.

The New York Times identified the Afghan man only as Khalil and reported that his sister and father also worked alongside U.S. forces, according to Al Jazeera.

Advocacy groups AfghanEvac, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First also confirmed the man’s deportation, Al Jazeera reported. AfghanEvac is a U.S.-based organization that assists Afghan allies.

The deportation comes as the Trump administration has increasingly sent migrants to countries that are not their own under agreements that advocates say are often secret or quietly arranged. Immigration lawyers and advocates say the practice has been used to send thousands of people to third countries where they have no ties while the administration pursues a broader immigration crackdown.

Lawyers say the approach can operate as a legal loophole, allowing the government to indirectly return some asylum seekers to countries they fled. In the Afghan man’s case, the judge’s protection order barred deportation to Afghanistan, not removal to another country.

NPR reported that Saturday’s flight was the second U.S. deportation flight to the Central African Republic since June, when two dozen migrants were sent there, including an Iranian woman facing persecution in her home country. Al Jazeera, citing Human Rights First, reported that it was the third such flight from the United States to the Central African Republic this year.

The Central African Republic has faced security concerns. Al Jazeera reported that the latest U.S. State Department travel advisory warns Americans not to travel there for any reason, citing unrest, crime, kidnapping, health risks and “terrorism.”

The flight added to scrutiny of the administration’s third-country deportation policy, particularly for people who have been granted protection from return to their home countries but are removed to nations where they may have no family, legal status or prior connection.