Burundi

Burundi has reportedly entered into a third country removal agreement with the United States after previously resisting an agreement without U.S. funding to the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in the amount of $8 million to address migration. Details of the third country removal agreement are unknown. 

Burundi is facing a deepening humanitarian and security crisis, marked by serious human rights abuses such as enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, violence against LGBTQ+ people—often involving government actors—and laws criminalizing same-sex conduct. The situation is worsened by gender-based violence, widespread crime, and reports of bodies found in public places. At the same time, Burundi struggles with high malnutrition, limited access to clean water, sanitation, and healthcare, and frequent climate disasters that intensify hunger and poor living conditions. 

Since early December 2025, more than 84,000 people fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu have crossed into Burundi, bringing the total number of Congolese refugees and asylum seekers to more than 200,000. Reception sites are dangerously overcrowded, with some at nearly double capacity, leaving families in dire conditions. Severe shortages of water and sanitation are raising the risk of disease outbreaks, including cholera and mpox. 

In February 2026, the United States and Burundi signed a five-year agreement on health cooperation, with the U.S. government committing U.S. $129 million to support HIV/AIDS and malaria programs and disease surveillance. This may have influenced negotiations over the third country national deportation agreement.