Iranian Asylum Seekers Face Imminent Deportation to Central African Republic

Three Iranian women who fled documented persecution are facing imminent deportation — not to Iran, but to the Central African Republic, a country where they have no ties, no family, and no safety.

IALDF has been traveling to detention facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi meeting with asylum seekers and fighting to stop their deportation to Africa.

U.S. immigration judges found their asylum claims credible. They fled Iran under conditions of documented danger: among them are participants in the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising and women who converted from Islam to Christianity, a capital offense under Iranian law. Their claims were denied not on the merits, but under a since-overturned CLP rule requiring asylum seekers to first apply for asylum in every country they transited. The CLP rule has been struck down, and those denied under it can now move to reopen their cases. The government is trying to deport these women before they have the chance to reopen their cases. These three women are running out of time.

The United States government is on the verge of deporting Iranian asylum seekers to the Central African Republic (CAR), a country so dangerous that the U.S. State Department has issued Level 4 Do Not Travel  advisory asking Americans not to go there. Those who choose to travel anyway are asked in the report to draft a will, establish a proof-of-life protocol with loved ones, and leave DNA samples with their doctor so their remains can be identified.

A Country on the Brink

CAR has endured decades of armed conflict and institutional collapse. In 2013 alone, approximately 1,000 civilians were killed in just two days. Thirteen peace agreements have been attempted since 1997 — every one has failed. Since the start of 2026, at least 60 people have been killed in ongoing clashes between government forces, armed groups, and Russian paramilitary personnel. The country ranks 191st out of 193 nations on the U.N. Human Development Index, 70% of its population lives on less than three dollars a day, and as of May 2026 it faces a potential Ebola outbreak. This is where the U.S. government intends to send asylum seekers who simply sought safety.

Why Iranian Nationals Face Heightened Risk

Wagner Group forces, Russian paramilitary contractors who serve as the CAR president's personal bodyguards and have been documented committing mass atrocities against civilians, have controlled the country's security apparatus since 2018. Russia and Iran have deepened their military partnership in recent years, most visibly through Iran's supply of drones to Russia and defense cooperation agreements formalized in 2024. Iranian nationals arriving as U.S. deportees would land in uniquely dangerous territory: potentially perceived as connected to a Russian-allied state by some factions, while simultaneously marked as arrivals from a U.S. adversary by others.

The State Department's own reports document all of this. Deporting Iranian asylum seekers to CAR is not a policy disagreement. It is a potentially fatal action that could unfold imminently.