A US federal appeals court has ruled that immigration officials must give detainees a "real opportunity" to challenge deportation to countries with which they have no ties. This is reported by CBS News.
This decision is a serious obstacle to the policy of the Donald Trump administration, which allows migrants to be sent to so-called third countries instead of their origin.
The decision was made by the US First Circuit Court of Appeals located in Boston. It largely upheld an earlier district court ruling that found the practice illegal.
We are talking about the rules established by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last year. They allowed authorities to deport migrants to a third country without prior notice if the country in question guaranteed the State Department that the deportees would not be persecuted or tortured there. If there were no such guarantees, the detainees should have received a certain notification.
The Court of Appeal ruled that these procedures were not sufficient. According to the judges, a person's right to challenge deportation to a country where he fears persecution is rendered meaningless if he is not informed in advance of the alleged place of deportation and is not allowed to present his objections.
"A person's right to challenge deportation to a country where there is a risk of persecution is worth almost nothing if he is not notified in advance of the intended place of deportation and is denied the opportunity to actually appeal the decision," the court's ruling said.
The National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which participated in the lawsuit against the DHS policy, said the court made an important point. the authorities cannot circumvent the safeguards against persecution and torture by simply changing the destination country of deportation.
DHS legal affairs representative James Percival, however, noted that the policy of deporting to third countries remains in effect because the court order has not yet come into force. According to him, if a person speaks about the danger in his country of origin, DHS has the right to send him to another state.
It is expected that the Trump administration will appeal this decision to the US Supreme Court.
Under the current administration, the US has signed agreements on extradition to third countries with more than 30 countries, including African countries. In some cases, migrants are sent to a third country because a court order prohibits direct deportation to their homeland, but does not prohibit deportation altogether.
According to one of the human rights organizations, more than 25 thousand migrants have been deported to third countries since the start of this policy of Trump. About 80 percent of them were sent to Mexico.
Earlier, CBS News reported about a group of migrants from Central and South American countries who were sent to Liberia in August. According to the deportees, US immigration officials did not warn them in advance that the destination would be Liberia, and did not give them the opportunity to appeal such deportation.
