To be found in the show
In this issue of Reporters+, Karina Chabour investigates a little-known side of American migration policy: the expulsion of people to third countries in Africa, far from the United States and sometimes far from their country of origin.
Among these men and women deported from the United States, some had lived on American soil for decades. They had worked there, paid their taxes, started a family and built their life. From one day to the next, they are arrested, detained, then sent to Ghana or Eswatini, countries they do not know, where they have neither relatives, nor resources, nor clearly established status.
Our reporter went to meet these deportees who are now faced with great vulnerability: without papers, in detention, they risk being sent back to the country they had fled, sometimes at the risk of their lives.
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Cover image: © France 24
Behind these broken destinies, the documentary reveals an opaque mechanism led by Washington. To obtain the signing of agreements with African countries, the American administration activates several levers: political and economic pressure, discreet concessions and financial incentives.
Also readDeportation Project: investigation into the Trump administration’s mass deportations to Africa
The Deportation Project: behind the scenes of the investigation
As part of a consortium of 26 international media outlets coordinated by Forbidden Stories, France 24 investigated the secret agreements concluded between the Trump administration and several African countries, designated as “third countries”, ready to welcome undocumented people arrested by ICE in the United States.
From Ghana to Cameroon, via Eswatini, our journalists followed for several months the broken destiny of people abandoned in countries with which they have no connection. Their investigation reveals the negotiations carried out behind the scenes to organize these transfers.
“ICE, Trump and Africa: secret agreements, lives sacrificed” delves into the heart of this American strategy of relocation of expulsions. An investigation into agreements negotiated in the shadows, where those expelled become a bargaining chip and their lives are trapped in bargains between states.
Also read in our fileWithout passports or landmarks: in Cameroon, the castaways of Trump’s migration policy
With the collaboration of Caroline Dumay, Olivia Bizot, Simon Martin and Marine Pradel.
The Deportation Project: find all our content
