Havana/Cuban Noslén Sendra, with diabetes and acute pancreatitis, is one of the sick migrants who will be deported by the United States to Africa. According to Arianne Betancourt, migrant rights organizer Workers Circle, half british Guardianthe deportation agents informed the man of his transfer, noting that Mexico did not agree to receive him.
Figures offered last July by the Al Jazeera network specify that 6,000 Cubans were deported by the United States and sent to southern Mexico. According to the document, mass expulsions to that country would be part of “a permanent unwritten agreement to accept Cuban citizens for deportation.”
Noslén Sendra, a 41-year-old Cuban who is in the Krome Services Processing Center, was told that “Mexico would not accept him because he needs too many medications.” And Cuba is not an option either. However, they have to deport him and they have told him it will be to Africa. The migrant’s wife, Anisley Cortés, has lived in uncertainty since she found out because “not knowing how he is or if we will see him again.”
The woman told the same media that Sendra, who has been imprisoned since last November and was in the Alligator Alcatraz prison until last April, lost 22 kilos of weight. “They didn’t give him his medication or enough food. It was a nightmare for all of us,” he said. “He is very sick and needs proper medical attention.”
Sendra, who has been imprisoned since last November and was in the Alligator Alcatraz prison until last April, has lost 22 kilos of weight
“We know that once they are deported and sent to these third countries, they do not receive medical care in detention centers. They have difficulties obtaining medication,” Betancourt warned.
Yasmany Moreno, who is in one of the six detention centers in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, has denounced the “inhumane” conditions in which deportees are held.
The poor conditions and food have taken their toll on Moreno and four other Cubans, who present “diarrhea, headaches and fatigue,” symptoms of the malaria. UN staff provided them with a box of doxycycline for treatment.
Without specifying the number of people, Betancourt, the immigrant rights organizer of Workers Circle, indicated that those expelled are currently in two immigration detention centers in Florida.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman rejected Guardian sending sick migrants to third countries. “No sick detainee is deported. All detainees receive medical clearance before travel and leave with the necessary medications,” he said.
The official said the story was false and that they were trying to discredit ICE agents, who, he said, “are facing a more than 1,600% increase in attacks against them.”
Between January 20, 2025 and August 31, 2026, at least 25,447 citizens have been deported from the United States to countries with which they have no ties. The Forbidden Stories consortium has presented an interactive map of these transfers, mostly silenced by the US Government, and reveals that some 35 countries have signed agreements for which the Donald Trump Administration has planned a total budget of 410 million dollars.
