Migrants sent to Bangui described being hit with pepper balls, restrained and not told their destination, The Los Angeles Times reports. The accounts are interview allegations; DHS says enforcement follows federal law.Published September 29, 2026 · 4 min read · MigraPrep editorial teamMigrants deported from the United States to the Central African Republic described being hit with pepper balls, restrained and not told their destination, The Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 29. The accounts came from interviews with people in Bangui and are allegations, not findings from a court or an independent investigation. Nicaraguan national Kenis Adalberto López said he and other shackled immigrants asked officers on a Texas tarmac where they were being taken and sought access to lawyers. He said an officer fired pepper balls at men who refused to board, hitting him twice in the chest, and that he was strapped to a stretcher and carried onto the plane. The Aug. 29 flight took López and 42 others to Bangui, according to the report. The passengers came from several countries, including Iran, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Lawyers told the Times that some had no criminal records and had received protection against return to their home countries because of possible torture. Two men said they were kept in full-body restraint suits for much of the flight; all passengers were shackled at their wrists and ankles while in the air, according to the interviews. López said the flight lasted about 24 hours and stopped in two other African countries. After arrival, the migrants received yellow-fever shots and were taken to housing where armed guards monitored them, the report said. It did not publish the full U.S.-Central African Republic arrangement or establish the deportees’ legal status, freedom of movement, access to protection procedures or length of stay. The Times also interviewed Luis Hernández, a Nicaraguan man who sought asylum in the United States. An immigration judge denied asylum but granted protection under the Convention Against Torture, barring his return to Nicaragua. The paper reported that Hernández had worked in the Washington area for years, was detained at a routine immigration check-in in February and was taken to a Texas tarmac on Aug. 28. He said he was never notified he would be sent to Africa. Hernández said pepper-spray canisters struck his back twice and knee once after he resisted boarding. He said he went days without food or sleep after reaching Bangui and experienced a mental breakdown. Those descriptions are his statements to the newspaper. DHS has said immigration operations comply with federal law and detainees are treated humanely. The article places the flight in the context of the U.S. third-country removal program and reports that more than 25,000 people have been expelled under it. A third country is not the person’s country of citizenship and may have no prior connection to them. Human rights groups say some deportees lack identity documents and face uncertainty about their status and ability to leave. The circumstances of this flight should not be assumed to describe every transfer or receiving country. The Times described security, health and infrastructure risks in Bangui and noted that the U.S. government warns American travelers about the Central African Republic. Human rights groups tracking the flights said three deportee flights had reached the country since June. The article did not say that everyone sent there had the same experience or that the interviewees could access a local protection process. Notice of a destination, a chance to contact counsel and an opportunity to raise persecution or torture concerns can affect a person’s ability to prepare legal materials before removal. A federal appeals court had required meaningful procedures in some third-country cases, followed by Supreme Court litigation; the scope and timing of each order must be checked against the court record. Earlier coverage of an Afghan deportee sent to the Central African Republic involved a different flight and person. The Times interviewed migrants who remained in Bangui and attributed statements to the people, attorneys, human-rights groups and government officials. It provided details about the flight and the interviewees’ accounts but did not publish every passenger’s immigration file, a complete flight log, detention medical records or the full government arrangement. Readers should distinguish dates and travel details that can be checked against records from allegations about forced boarding and the use of force that still require investigation. The report concerns how third-country removals operated in specific cases; it does not announce a new legal rule. It does not establish that everyone sent to a non-home country was hit with pepper balls or restrained in the same way, nor that every passenger had identical protection under the Convention Against Torture. Individual decisions, removal notices, detention records and receiving-country arrangements must be assessed separately.