This exclusive investigation reveals President Trump’s secret deportation deals that have led to hundreds of people being deported to so-called third countries in Africa, far from the United States and often far from their countries of origin. To secure these agreements, the US piles on the pressure: political and financial deals, discreet
bargaining, or trade and tariff incentives.
Rabbiatu Kuyateh spent most of her life in America after fleeing Sierra Leone as a child with her parents. She worked hard as a nurse and raised a family. Then, during a routine check-in with ICE, she was arrested. After months in custody, her lawyer secured a court order ruling that she could not be deported to Sierra Leone because she faced the risk of torture and persecution. A few days later, instead of being released, she was deported to Ghana – a country she had never visited and had no connections with. After a few days in Ghana, she was then returned to Sierra Leone. Video footage captured the moment she was dragged, terrified, into the waiting van.
Like Rabbiatu, most of the people deported have been living in the US for decades. Without notice, they were arrested, detained and then deported to Ghana and Eswatini, where they have no legal status. We met individuals who now live in limbo: without papers and sometimes detained, at risk of being sent back to the very country they fled, many fearing for their lives.
Behind the broken lives of the deported, the film reveals a dark system put in place by Washington. How these African nations are forced to accept America’s migrants and how the scale of these deportations is increasing.