Guyana agreed to accept US third-country deportees despite no refugee treaty status

On November 25, 2025, Guyana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation sent a diplomatic note (No. 1649/2025) to the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown expressing its willingness to consider accepting the transfer of third-country nationals from the United States. The note states Guyana would retain "complete discretion to accept or reject the transfer of any given individual" and assures the U.S. that transferred individuals would be treated consistently with the Convention Against Torture, the principle of nonrefoulement, and Guyana's domestic laws — without committing to any specific numeric cap, cost-sharing arrangement, or implementation timeline.

Guyana is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and has no national asylum legislation, and UNHCR maintains only a reduced presence in the country. That leaves the note's assurances — including its promise not to further transfer anyone to a country where they would face persecution or torture — resting on Guyana's own domestic discretion rather than binding treaty obligations, a gap of particular concern for anyone previously granted U.S. withholding of removal or Convention Against Torture protection. As of this filing, no transfers to Guyana under the arrangement have been publicly confirmed; Guyana's government has said it would consider admitting only migrants without criminal records who have skills matching labor shortages in its oil-driven economy.

Updates

2026-09-04 — Guyana received its first deportees under the arrangement [3]

Six nationals of Cuba and Afghanistan deported by the Trump administration arrived in Guyana, Guyana's government confirmed the following day. Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud said his administration vetted the group and found no criminal backgrounds, and that the deportees were removed from the U.S. primarily over immigration status, not criminal conduct. The transfers were made under a program Guyana calls the "Assisted Voluntary Return Program," administered by the U.N. International Organization for Migration; Guyana said it will not bear housing or support costs, and Persaud characterized the arrangement as a one-year, non-permanent placement, adding that "the U.S. has not made any further requests." Human rights activists denounced third-country deportations generally as inhumane and, they argue, illegal under international law, saying some countries are receiving deportees who fled persecution there.