U.S. deportees to Cameroon struggle with stateless lives and uncertain futures
Washington was found to have offered deals worth millions of dollars and threatened visa curbs to coerce countries to accept the deportation program.
A woman who has been caught up in U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which involves shipping people that the U.S. cannot legally send home to "third countries," shields her face with a mask as she poses for a photograph in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Wednesday. | AFP-JIJI
AFP-JIJI
Sep 10, 2026
YAOUNDE, Cameroon – Ayana was deported to Cameroon from the United States, where she had legally lived nearly all her life, and now faces uncertainty — far from her family in an unfamiliar country.
Born in a refugee camp in Sudan, she arrived in the U.S. age two and is among hundreds of people, including those with legal protection, deported to African countries over the last 18 months.
“When I was given a map and they told me, ’You’re in Cameroon’, I said, ’What the heck is Cameroon?’ I didn’t even know,” she said.
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