From the United States to the Central African Republic without knowing what the destination was. This is what two migrants deported by the Trump administration told CBS. One of them has a wife and five-year-old son who are US citizens. The other fears returning to Cuba and had obtained protection against repatriation. Bangui is one of more than 30 governments involved in the agreements with Washington
Until last year they lived and worked in the United States, where they had left their families. Now they are stuck in the Central African Republic, a country they had never been to before and where Donald Trump's administration deported them without warning along with dozens of migrants of different nationalities. This is the story told to CBS News by Yasmany Moreno de Armas, a 31-year-old Cuban, and Zena Gebrgzabher, a 39-year-old Eritrean. Moreno de Armas reported that he discovered that he had been expelled from the African country only after his arrival, at the end of July. With him were people from, among others, Ecuador, Honduras, Serbia, Russia and Vietnam.
"Where's Dad?": The family left in the United States
"We cannot leave, we have no documents and we are suffering and missing our families, in a continent we do not know," he declared in a video call from a building in Bangui where the deportees are staying. Before the expulsion, he assured, he had never heard of the Central African Republic. Gebrgzabher also claims that he was neither informed of the destination nor had the opportunity to contest the transfer. His wife and five-year-old son, both US citizens, live in Maryland, where the man worked as a truck driver. "My son asks my wife every day: where is dad?" he said. His wife, Yrgalem Gehrehiwet, called the deportation "unjust and inhumane."
The move to one of the poorest countries in the world
CBS News says it found no criminal records against the two men, beyond traffic and immigration violations. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the broadcaster's questions about the transfers and the terms of the agreement reached with Bangui. The Central African Republic, among the poorest countries in the world, is marked by armed conflicts, political instability and the presence of Russian mercenaries. The US State Department itself advises against any travel to the country, classified at the highest alert level due to widespread insecurity. Bangui is one of over 30 governments that Washington has apparently convinced to welcome expelled migrants from third countries, as part of Trump's crackdown on irregular immigration.
Agreements with third countries
The agreements are used especially in cases where countries of origin, such as Cuba, refuse or limit repatriations or when migrants have obtained judicial protections that prevent their return to their homeland. Moreno de Armas, who arrived in Florida by boat in 2016, says he is at risk if he returns to Cuba, where he was jailed after an initial attempt to leave the island. His green card application was rejected and, arrested by immigration authorities in May 2025, he spent about a year in custody before deportation. Gebrgzabher had instead obtained the protection provided by the Convention against Torture in 2017, which prevented his repatriation to Eritrea but not his transfer to a third country. "If you have to be deported, it should be to your country of origin, not to another where you don't know the culture," Moreno de Armas denounced.
