United States and Burundi agreed to transfer of nationals flagged as security risks

The U.S. Department of State proposed a third-country removal understanding to the Embassy of Burundi via diplomatic note dated December 8, 2025, under which the U.S. could propose transferring third-country nationals present in the United States to Burundi at its complete discretion, with Burundi retaining discretion to accept or reject each proposal. Unlike most of the administration's other third-country notes, this one explicitly states the transferred population "may include third-country nationals who raise national security or public safety concerns" — language not present in the parallel notes sent to other countries, and one that does not specify what process determines such a classification or affords the person any opportunity to contest it.

Burundi's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and Development Cooperation accepted the U.S. proposal in a note dated February 6, 2026 (itself superseding an earlier January 20, 2026 note), while stressing that Burundi would not accept anyone who had committed violent crimes; the U.S. Embassy in Bujumbura confirmed that condition in a reply dated February 12, 2026, completing the understanding. Burundi is a country the State Department's own reporting elsewhere describes as facing a deepening humanitarian and security crisis — including enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and violence against LGBTQ+ people often involving government actors — and hosting over 200,000 refugees and asylum seekers of its own fleeing violence in neighboring DR Congo. No transfers to Burundi under the arrangement have been publicly confirmed as of this filing.