Banished: the secret Trump deals sending migrants across the world – podcast | US immigration

A Sierra Leonean nurse detained, handcuffed and flown to Ghana. An Iranian dissident to Central African Republic. A Cameroonian to Equatorial Guinea.

This is the face of the Trump administration’s deportations policy since 2025 – striking deals with 35 countries, and sending up to 25,000 migrants in the US across the world, often to places they have no connection to at all.

The Guardian investigations correspondent Louisa Loveluck – as part of a consortium of journalists organised by Forbidden Stories – uncovers some of the human stories behind these deals.

The Today in Focus host Annie Kelly asks whether this is even legal, and what happens to people once they are banished.