She fled Iran. America sent her to Africa | CNN

When Nika arrived in the US in late 2024, she thought the hardest part of her journey was over. The 32-year-old had fled her home country of Iran, where she says her political activism made her a target of the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. After a grueling, months-long journey trekking through Central America’s Darien Gap, a treacherous stretch of densely forested jungle, she recalled being overcome with emotion on finally crossing the border. “It’s okay now, I’m safe,” she remembered thinking. “I can make one new life here.” She described her joy at reaching “one of the best countries in the world,” but her happiness would prove fleeting. Why is America ramping up deportations to Africa? Nika is among a growing number of migrants deported by the Trump administration to countries they’ve never been to – countries that can hardly be considered safe havens. It’s a loophole. Judges have stopped the US government from sending some migrants back to their home countries. So it has inked dozens of arrangements with third countries, where people like Nika are increasingly festering. Because she fears for both her and her family’s safety,