US third‑country deportation agreements

In July 2026 Belize began applying its Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States, transferring small groups of third‑country nationals seeking protection. The first eight arrivals, including a Haitian, landed in late July, followed by a second flight of eighteen passengers – eleven Belizean citizens and seven foreign nationals (mostly Haitians) – after security and background checks.

Around the same time the United States’ separate Third Country National Agreement with Sierra Leone continued its monthly quota. On 31 July a third batch of ten deportees (mostly West African nationals) arrived in Freetown, where they were processed by a private firm under a US‑funded programme. Since the Sierra Leone scheme started in May 2026, 32 individuals have been received.

Both agreements, limited in scale and subject to legal‑rights scrutiny, illustrate the United States’ broader strategy of relocating certain asylum‑seeking migrants to partner countries for further processing.