More than 20 independent United Nations human rights experts warned Monday that U.S. deportations of thousands of people to dozens of countries are "triggering a cascade of human rights violations," heightening the risk of torture, enforced disappearance, slavery and trafficking.

The experts — among them the special rapporteurs on migrants' rights and on human rights while countering terrorism — issued the warning as the United States continues a removal program built on agreements with developing countries to accept migrants who cannot legally be sent to their home countries. President Donald Trump's administration began signing those agreements after he took office in January 2025.

The experts, who are appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said the arrangements were "increasing risks of torture and ill-treatment and enforced disappearance."

They also said the agreements were "breaching the customary law principle of non-refoulement in countries around the world that are signing agreements to accept planeloads of migrants and refugees removed from the US."

The scale of the program

The experts said the United States has signed agreements with more than 35 countries, including Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya and South Sudan. At least 23,000 people have been deported to countries other than their own under the arrangements, according to the experts' account.

An investigation published last week by the nonprofit group Forbidden Stories and a consortium of international journalists put the figure above 25,000 by the end of August.

Those affected include asylum-seekers and migrants at various stages of the immigration process, the experts said.

The legal core: non-refoulement

The experts' central legal claim concerns non-refoulement, the customary international law principle that bars states from returning people to territories where they face serious harm. The experts said the U.S. arrangements breach that principle — and that the receiving states breach it too.

They warned that deportees are being sent "to countries or territories with which they have no ties," potentially compounding the harms that drove them to flee to the United States in the first place.

"Others are sent to places where they risk further violence or discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or human rights advocacy," the experts said.

The arrangements, they warned, could lead to violations including arbitrary detention, slavery and trafficking.

"At gravest risk are children, women, persons with disabilities, victims of trafficking, LGBT persons, human rights defenders, stateless persons and other people in extremely vulnerable situations," the experts said. "For migrants in situations of particular vulnerability, the consequences can be deadly."

Conditions in receiving states

Many of the receiving countries have "no asylum processing infrastructure, protective holding facilities or adequate health and medical services or sustainable reintegration options," the experts said.

"In many cases, these third countries are themselves engulfed in conflict, with their own populations facing displacement, starvation and debilitating poverty," they added.

The experts said they have notified the United States and the other governments involved of their concerns.

Shared responsibility

The experts drew a sharp line on the question of legal responsibility, stressing that "cooperation does not dilute responsibility."

"A state that knowingly aids or assists another state in conduct that violates non-refoulement or other human rights obligations may itself incur international responsibility," they said.

That statement carries weight for any government negotiating or administering a transfer agreement with Washington. Under the experts' framing, a receiving state cannot shield itself from international responsibility by pointing to the U.S. origin of the removals — knowingly assisting a breach of non-refoulement can itself engage that state's own responsibility.

The experts also said they have contacted U.N. agencies that assist refugees and migrants, including the International Organization for Migration, to stress that "their engagement must never legitimise arrangements that expose people to refoulement or other grave human rights violations."

"Participating in measures that lead to rights violations … may, in some situations, amount to complicity," they warned.

The demand

The experts closed with a direct call to the governments involved.

"All states and territories involved must immediately halt these arrangements," they said.

What this means for practitioners

For immigration and human rights counsel, the statement supplies material that could support litigation and advocacy on several fronts. The experts' characterization of non-refoulement as a customary law obligation breached by both sending and receiving states gives advocates language to challenge removals to third countries — particularly for clients with no ties to the destination state, or those facing risks tied to gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or human rights advocacy. The finding that at least 23,000 people have been deported to countries other than their own, under agreements with more than 35 states, frames the scale of potential claims. Counsel for governments and international organizations face a different calculus: the experts' warnings on aiding, assisting and complicity signal that involvement in the arrangements — whether as a signatory state or as an implementing agency — may itself engage international responsibility. The experts do not speak for the United Nations, and their statements carry no binding force. But their intervention, backed by formal notifications to the states concerned, raises the documentation trail that courts, treaty bodies and future proceedings may draw upon.