Ivory Coast’s resolute no to US third-country deportations marks a defining moment
Ivory Coast has turned down a US request to accept individuals deported from the United States who are not necessarily Ivorian citizens, a move that signals a decisive shift in West Africa’s approach to migration. The refusal, brought to light in a September 21, 2026 investigative report, comes as the Trump administration escalates its push to send deportees to so-called third countries.
In mid-June 2026, a senior US State Department official visited Abidjan as part of a diplomatic swing through West and Central Africa.
Christian Ehrhardt, who heads the State Department’s Office of Remigration, was on a mission to persuade several African governments to take in deportees from the US even though those individuals are not citizens of the host nations.
According to the investigation, the talks in Abidjan fell flat. Ivorian authorities declined the US proposal.
A new US policy of third-country deportations
The overture is part of a broader Trump administration strategy to expand deportations to third countries.
The concept is relatively novel: a person can be expelled from the US to a country where they are not a national and with which they may have no prior ties.
Internal State Department data reviewed in the investigation show that by late June 2026, the US government had authorized or pledged at least $410 million to facilitate agreements with 31 countries, primarily in Africa and Latin America.
Since 2025, more than 25,000 people are said to have been deported to at least 28 third countries, based on an analysis drawing on multiple independent sources for the investigation.
Some nations have accepted foreign nationals in exchange for funding or other forms of assistance. The report cites direct financial commitments to several governments.
Abidjan rejects the arrangement
Against this backdrop, Christian Ehrhardt’s mission to Ivory Coast takes on added significance.
The US official, who leads an office of about fifteen people at the State Department, was tasked with negotiating with foreign governments to accept people deported from the US.
But in Abidjan, the US proposal apparently found no takers.
Ivory Coast does not appear in the US data released for June 2026 among the countries that have concluded an operational agreement of this kind.
A decision amid a sensitive context
The issue of third-country deportations is highly controversial.
The US administration frames the policy as a way to remove individuals under deportation orders when their home countries refuse or are unable to take them back.
Human rights organizations and lawyers for deportees, however, challenge certain aspects of the mechanism, particularly the safeguards offered to those concerned before transfer to a third country.
The investigation also reports that a US federal appeals court ruled in September 2026 that the policy was illegal in a case concerning the lack of sufficient guarantees for the individuals involved. The Trump administration was expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
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