No one would tell the shackled detainees onboard the US immigration plane where they were going.
asserted
they → tell → plane
The officers in charge would taunt them when they asked, they said.
asserted
they → taunt → them
It was only when the seat-back video screens finally showed a map that the 18 migrants worked it out.
asserted
migrants → show → it
Their destination was Central African Republic (CAR), a country few of them had even heard of.
asserted
few → hear → them
Nika, a 32-year-old Iranian woman, recalled how the handcuffs dug into her wrists.
asserted
handcuffs → recall → wrists
She begged the officers to loosen them, but they did not.
asserted
they → beg → them
Other passengers had it worse, she said.
asserted
she → have → ?
Some of the men were restrained in black and yellow body wraps, as if mummified, after resisting orders to get on the plane.
asserted
Some → restrain → plane
Nika, who had fled Iran 18 months earlier after protesting against its regime, had imagined the US as a place of sanctuary.
asserted
who → flee → sanctuary
Iran was already one of the most repressive countries in the world when she left, and its horrors had only deepened since then: security forces gunned down thousands of other demonstrators this year, then Donald Trump’s administration launched the war there.
asserted
administration → leave → war
After more than a year locked up in a US immigration detention centre, Nika, whose name the Guardian has changed to protect her family in Iran, was granted legal protections and freed on a judge’s orders.
asserted
Guardian → lock → orders
Within two weeks, the Department of Homeland Security had rearrested her, and days later she was on the plane heading 7,000 miles east.
asserted
she → rearreste → plane
“They never told me they were going to deport me [to] this country,” she told the Guardian.
asserted
she → tell → Guardian
“I don’t know anything about Africa.”
asserted
I → know → Africa
The Department of State warns US citizens not to travel to CAR because it says it is too dangerous.
asserted
it → warn → CAR
Nika spends most of her days there under a form of self-imprisonment, too scared to venture out from her small bedroom as she waits for an answer to the question on which her life depends: will she be sent back to Iran, and to a regime that could kill her?
uncertain
that → spend → her
Nika is one of more than 25,000 people deported by the Trump administration to countries that are not their own.
asserted
that → deport → countries
About 20,000 people have been bussed to Mexico, according to a count by Refugees International and Human Rights First.
uncertain
people → buss → International
And more than 5,000 others have been put on flights to countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and central Asia to which they have no connection, and then, often, returned to the countries where US immigration judges had ruled their lives or liberty were at risk.
Human rights lawyers describe these so-called third-country national arrangements as part of a “show of force” by the US intended to discourage migrants and asylum seekers from entering.
asserted
lawyers → put → migrants
People from Peru and Colombia have been sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
asserted
People → send → Congo
On 20 August, four Cubans, a Brazilian and a Cameroonian refused to disembark in Liberia, and were sent to Equatorial Guinea instead.
asserted
Cubans → refuse → Guinea
In order to compile the most comprehensive account of a policy that has mostly operated behind closed doors, the Guardian joined 23 other media organisations in the Deportation Project, a joint investigation coordinated by Paris-based Forbidden Stories.
asserted
Guardian → compile → Stories
The consortium interviewed more than 100 people affected by, or involved in, the US drive to extinguish unauthorised immigration, and reviewed documents outlining details of the agreements made by US officials with governments around the world.
asserted
consortium → interview → world
It has tracked more than 100 flights that have carried migrants and asylum seekers to 28 different countries.
asserted
that → track → countries
This is likely to be an undercount as the consortium’s dataset only includes flights it was able to independently verify.
asserted
it → include → flights
The pace of flights is increasing.
asserted
pace → increase → flights
After an initial wave during the opening months of the second Trump administration, the number of deportations spiked in August again when, according to a count by Human Rights First, a record 16 flights carried people to 13 different countries that were not their own.
uncertain
that → open → countries
A US federal appeals court ruled on Friday that third-country removals were unlawful, arguing that they violated due process because people are not notified with enough time to mount a legal challenge to the decision to send them to another country.
asserted
people → rule → country
Human rights lawyers suggested this should immediately ground third-country deportation flights.
uncertain
this → suggest → flights
The government is expected to appeal against the judgment, and to press ahead with its policy.
asserted
government → expect → policy
A state department spokesperson said implementing the Trump administration’s immigration policies was a “top priority” and “we are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security”.
asserted
we → say → security
They added: “The US government will use all legal means to remove those with no right to remain in our country.”
asserted
government → add → country
The Trump administration has said the people it deports are criminals.
asserted
it → say → ?
Yet documents obtained by the Washington Post as part of this project show that a majority of the 35 countries that have signed deals with the US have said they will not accept migrants with violent criminal records.
asserted
they → obtain → records
The people forced on to planes include those who spent most of their lives in the US, parents detained on the school run, the adult children of elderly relatives who depend on them for care.
asserted
who → force → care
Many are people whose fear of returning home was deemed so credible that immigration judges barred their removal from the US.
asserted
judges → return → US
Nika had been granted “withholding of removal”, a protection for individuals who may face severe harm in their country of origin but are ineligible for asylum.
uncertain
who → grant → asylum
On 28 May, not only was she released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody, but she was eligible to find a job, to work, and to stay.
uncertain
she → release → job
Image credit: Guardian Design/Getty Images/Reuters
The rug pull
Nika’s lawyer, Sahar Jalili, is Iranian and, like her client, studied in Tehran.
asserted
lawyer → study → Tehran
She took the case when she was pregnant, and often worked past the point of exhaustion.
asserted
she → take → exhaustion
…and 160 more, not listed.
The Aporia
