Central African Republic

Background and Developments (last updated August 21, 2026)

The Central African Republic (CAR) has entered into a third country removal agreement with the United States following approval of $85 million in U.S. government funding for the International Organization for Migration’s operations in CAR, an amount wildly surpassing by over $50 million dollars U.S. funding for IOM in CAR in recent years. According to the agreement, signed on April 4, 2026, at least seven days before a proposed transfer flight, the United States would provide the CAR government with a list of the people it intended to transfer, their criminal history and “the reason for their removal from the United States.” Notably, the agreement does not require the U.S. government to inform the government of CAR whether individuals on the list have been found by U.S. immigration judges to be likely to be persecuted or tortured if repatriated to their home countries. 

On June 12, 2026, the United States sent a flight carrying 18 country nationals, including people from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Cameroon, Egypt, and Tunisia. All but one had been granted withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture in the United States. Among those removed to CAR was a pro-democracy activist whose lawyer believes will be at risk in CAR or if sent back to Iran. Once they arrived in CAR, they were detained for an initial two weeks, did not have access to medication, and several people were hospitalized for Malaria. Since they have been allowed to leave their accommodations, they have been threatened by police. As of the end of July, 15 out of the 18 people remain in the Central African Republic. Beyond lacking family, community, or linguistic ties or economic means of support in CAR, these third country nationals are at risk because of the pervasive Russian presence in CAR as well as anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.   

On July 31, 2026, a flight landed in CAR carrying 31 third country nationals from the United States who were asylum seekers or who immigration judges had found to be refugees likely to be subject to persecution or torture in their home countries. The 31 included populations particularly  vulnerable in CAR (nationals of Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Somalia) along with nationals of Cuba, Honduras, Ecuador, Serbia, Nepal, Eritrea, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. The Eritrean national, who fled his country after imprisonment by the military and was granted protection under the Convention Against Torture by a U.S. immigration judge almost a decade ago, was arrested at a regular ICE check-in and is now seperared from his U.S. citizen wife and child in Maryland. The Honduran national fled to the United States as a minor a decade ago after members of his immediate family were murdered. He was transferred to four different detention centers and pressured to accept deportation to Mexico, where he had been previously robbed and beaten, before he was rushed to be deported to CAR. He told El Pais about ICE beating unconscious a Vietnamese man who resisted getting on the plane. A Cuban asylum seeker had his case summarily dismissed in immigration court and was deported to CAR while he had a pending habeas corpus case challenging his detention. All of the Latin American deportees lived in Florida and they and their relatives there are urging Florida representatives to help bring them back to the United States as they are confined to a hotel and afraid to remain in CAR. 

High levels of unrest, crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict has led the U.S. Department of State to issue a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” Travel Advisory for CAR since January 2026, its most severe designation, and maintains only a limited diplomatic presence in the country. The U.S. government has acknowledged its “limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in the Central African Republic.” Other governments may also face challenges providing emergency services, creating a palpable concern of neglect. 

CAR’s fragile economy and severely limited access to basic services, including healthcare, education, and infrastructure, further exacerbate the risks faced by individuals returned there. More than a decade since its 2013-2014 civil war, CAR remains one of the most fragile states in the world. The 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan, designed to meet only a fraction of the needs of the 2.3 million people requiring assistance, is currently funded at just 22%. Health infrastructure is largely absent. Unemployment is pervasive. Indeed, CAR is experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis. Nearly 1.1 million citizens are forcibly displaced, and the country is simultaneously receiving refugees and asylum seekers fleeing violence in neighboring countries, including Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Chad. The additional pressure of receiving third-country nationals with no prior connection to CAR will only deepen existing strains on a country and government already beyond capacity. Deportees themselves may feel compelled to flee once removed there.

Armed groups in CAR continue to commit serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including unlawful killings, physical violence, abductions, sexual violence, looting, and the destruction of property. However, it is not only non-state armed groups that pose a threat. The CAR state itself, through its armed forces, its bureaucracy, and its Russian mercenary partners, repeatedly targets those they consider outsiders—primarily CAR’s Muslim minority—with exclusion and violence. In CAR, third country nationals are perceived as foreign, whether by faith, ethnicity, language, or origin, and would be at risk of violence at checkpoints and in encounters with CAR state forces and Russian mercenaries. Visible markers of Muslim faith, including clothing, prayer, and language, expose individuals to political exclusion, harassment, threats, and violence by both security forces and civilians. 

The Wagner Group, a Russian state-linked private military company rebranded in 2023 as Africa Corps, has operated in CAR since 2018 and is embedded within the government, including border control, airport security, and civil registry offices, where nationals obtain identity documents and birth certificates. Wagner forces operate with near-total impunity, have been involved in preventing rebels efforts to seize power, and linked to murdering civilians, abductions, and rape. No domestic or international accountability mechanism has successfully prosecuted Wagner personnel for violence against civilians. Muslims and those who are “anti-Russian” are at particular risk. 

The terms and incentives behind the U.S.-CAR third county deportation agreement raise serious questions. It is unclear what was offered by the United States to make this arrangement palatable to a CAR government operating under heavy Russian influence with a documented disregard for human rights.