A Turkish woman who was granted protection by a US immigration judge because of the danger she faced at home was deported instead to the Central African Republic, a country she had never visited or even heard of before boarding the flight.Aylin, 28, who is gay, told CNN she had left Turkey after receiving death threats from a religious group and a member of her family. She travelled to the US hoping to build a life where she could live openly and safely. CNN is using a pseudonym to protect her from reprisals.“I just hoped to be free. To live my life how I want to live, to take a breath. To have friends. A relationship. A good family. My own family. Justice.”After arriving in the US, Aylin was granted withholding of removal, a form of legal protection that recognised the danger she could face if returned to Turkey because of her sexuality. She was, however, denied asylum under a Biden-era policy that limited asylum eligibility for many migrants who crossed the southern border outside official routes. That policy has since been struck down by a federal judge.
Deported to a country she did not know
Aylin spent 18 months in US detention before being handcuffed and shackled and put on a flight in July. She only learnt during the journey that she was being taken to the Central African Republic.Her case highlights concerns over a growing US policy of sending migrants to countries other than their countries of origin. Immigration advocates say the Trump administration has reached at least 35 agreements with countries in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere to accept deportees, according to Third Country Deportation Watch.Among those affected are LGBTQ migrants who say they face persecution because of their sexuality or gender identity.Aylin spent weeks in an apartment in Bangui, unsure of what would happen next. Although homosexuality is not illegal in the Central African Republic, a 2023 US State Department report described maintaining a same-sex relationship there as “extraordinarily dangerous”.Despite her fears, Aylin eventually decided to return to Turkey.“I hope everything has changed for people like me in Turkey,” she told CNN before her flight home. “But I’m so scared. Really, I’m so scared.”
LGBTQ migrants caught in limbo
Aylin was not the only LGBTQ migrant affected by the policy. Adwoa, a 21-year-old bisexual Ghanaian woman, said she had faced years of hostility and violence because of her sexuality. After a US court prevented her deportation to Ghana, she was instead sent to Cameroon, where same-sex relations are illegal and can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.“It’s like you’re a criminal,” Adwoa said of her life in Cameroon, where she has been held at a government-run detention facility for months. “It’s a terrifying feeling.”Bridget Crawford of Immigration Equality, which provides legal services to LGBTQ migrants, said sending queer and transgender people to countries where they may face persecution was especially troubling.“But if you’re queer or trans and you’re being sent to a country that persecutes queer and trans people, it is just unconscionable.”Human rights groups are particularly concerned that many of the countries accepting US deportees are in Africa, where homosexuality remains criminalised in several nations.
US defends deportation policy
The US department of homeland security has defended the arrangements, saying migrants receive due process and that third-country agreements are lawful.“These third-country agreements, which ensure due process under the U.S. Constitution, are essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people,” DHS said. “We are applying the law as written. If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”A federal appeals court this month upheld a ruling that found aspects of the administration’s third-country deportation policy unlawful. The dispute could eventually reach the Supreme Court.Aylin is now back in Turkey and has told her family that she has changed her sexual orientation. But she says she does not feel free.“I will find a job, I will get money, I will leave secretly for Europe or somewhere else,” she said. “I cannot feel like myself here.”
