Guyana has received six Cuban and Afghan nationals deported from the United States, Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud said. The group arrived on Saturday after being removed over immigration issues, and none had criminal backgrounds, according to Persaud.
The arrangement lasts one year and does not constitute permanent resettlement. The deportees will await the outcome of their immigration process in Guyana, with support through the United Nations International Organisation for Migration’s Assisted Voluntary Return Programme.
How the Guyana arrangement works
Third-country deportation means sending foreign nationals to a country other than their country of origin. Persaud said Guyana agreed to receive the deportees after negotiations with the United States.
The people sent to Guyana are expected to remain there while their immigration cases are addressed. The arrangement allows for a possible return to their countries of origin or relocation to another place, but it does not provide permanent settlement in Guyana.
Key points
- The United States has made no further requests to send non-citizen deportees to Guyana at this time.
- The arrangement followed months of negotiations between Guyana and the United States.
- The six people could return to their countries of origin or seek relocation elsewhere.
- Amnesty International estimates that more than 30 countries have entered similar agreements since Donald Trump returned to office, including 15 in the Americas.
Why the policy is drawing scrutiny
The Trump administration has sought to expand third-country deportations as part of its broader effort to restrict immigration and remove foreign nationals. Officials have justified the policy by saying that some countries, including Cuba, refuse to accept deportees from the United States.
Rights groups have criticised the practice, arguing that it can punish migrants and pressure them to abandon immigration claims in the United States. Concerns have also focused on conditions in countries receiving deportees, including poverty, instability, conflict and alleged human rights abuses.
A wider US deportation campaign
The removals form part of an ongoing campaign connected to Trump’s pledge during his 2024 re-election bid to pursue the largest deportation programme of criminals in US history. The administration has also cancelled programmes such as Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole, stripping legal status from tens of thousands of migrants.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University estimates that 70.6 percent of foreign nationals currently held in US immigration detention have no criminal conviction. Reports have also emerged of plans to strip visas from roughly 200,000 people seeking asylum, though the supplied information does not give a final outcome for those plans.
What happens next
Guyana’s Foreign Secretary said the six deportees will proceed through the immigration process there, with assistance from the International Organisation for Migration under its Assisted Voluntary Return Programme.
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