Burundi agrees to receive deportees from the United States

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Burundi, which is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, announced Thursday that it had signed an agreement with the United States to receive third-country nationals whom the administration of US President Donald Trump decided to deport.

An investigation conducted by Agence France-Presse in early 2026 revealed that the United States had encouraged about 35 countries, most of them in Africa, to receive deportees in exchange for millions of dollars in aid, and threatened to impose visa restrictions in the event of non-response.

Nancy-Ninet Mutoni, spokeswoman for Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, said that the latter "recently agreed...for Burundi to receive immigrants whom the United States has decided to deport, but only those who are not criminally prosecuted and are not suspected of involvement in terrorism."

Since Trump dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which represented 42 percent of global foreign aid, Washington has been working to conclude new agreements with African governments on the condition that they provide services in exchange for funding.

These services may include making personal health data available to residents or utilizing rare minerals.

According to estimates provided by an international investigation published by the Forbidden Stories coalition in September, the United States has deported more than 25,000 people under unannounced agreements with 35 countries that agreed to receive immigrants with no ties to it.

Burundi is a small landlocked country located in the Great Lakes region of Africa. It is the poorest country in the world according to the World Bank’s classification for the year 2024, and it suffers from recurring fuel supply crises.

Motoni spoke of "active preparations" underway to receive the deportees, and said that a date for implementing the agreement has not yet been set.

"We need to prepare a place for them to stay, provide their basic needs, and develop a vision for how they can coexist with the local population," she added.

United Nations experts warned on Monday that the United States' deportation of thousands of people to dozens of other countries could cause a series of human rights violations and increase the risk of deportees being exposed to torture, slavery, and human trafficking.

The experts called on "all concerned countries and territories to immediately stop these arrangements," stressing that "cooperation does not relieve any party of its responsibilities."

They said, "These third countries are witnessing conflicts in many cases, while their residents themselves face displacement, hunger, and extreme poverty."