Asylum seekers are being illegally abused, arrested and deported from the US, according to a new report.

The report, by NGOs Human Rights First and Refugees International, accuses the US government of “systemic and grave human rights abuses” carried out against asylum seekers in US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody.

CBP agents routinely subjected asylum-seeking families and adults to cruel and inhumane conditions and unlawfully expelled, removed, and transferred them to third countries without so much as a fear screening, the report says.

Christina Asencio, Director of Research and Analysis, Refugee Protection at Human Rights First, said the conditions in CBP custody amount to a humanitarian crisis.

“Our report finds that asylum seekers—many of them children—are facing medical neglect, psychological abuse, and prolonged detention in unsafe, unsanitary conditions,” she said.

“CBP is separating children from parents, giving them inadequate food and heat, and denying access to sunlight, play, or adequate care—sometimes for weeks at a time.

“Many asylum seekers and migrants detained by CBP are held incommunicado and denied the ability to contact family members or lawyers, rendering their whereabouts unknown and amounting to enforced disappearances. These actions are not only clear violations of US law, they are a betrayal of this country’s core values.”

The report directly accuses President Donald Trump of ordering the abuse, explusions and refoulement of people seeking asylum.

It is based on research, including interviews with people who had been in CBP custody and were removed or expelled to their home countries or to Panama or Costa Rica, as well as with human rights monitors and civil society groups in Costa Rica and legal service providers in the United States.

The interviews were with Afghan, Russian, and Armenian families who fled life-threatening attacks for their religious and political views.

The report says the families were denied a chance to seek asylum at the US border, subject to abuse while detained there, and then removed to potential persecution, expelled to isolation and limbo in third countries.

They were also separated from their families in the US.

Yael Schacher, Director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, said the treatment of the asylum seekers was cruel.

“When they asked for better treatment, US officials punished them with worse. When they begged for protection, officials said there was no more asylum. When they expressed fear of deportation, officials said they were operating under orders from Trump,” Ms Schacher said.

“People we interviewed told us that when they appealed to CBP officials for better treatment or to halt an illegal deportation, agents denied those requests while claiming to be acting in accordance with President Trump’s agenda,” Ms Asencio said.

“The Trump administration is using appropriated funds to disappear asylum seekers in CBP custody and whisk them out of the country under undisclosed agreements with third countries in order to avoid complying with obligations under US and international law and without the slightest concern for their security, rights, and welfare.

“This is part of a broader Trump administration attack on due process and the checks and balances that are central to the US Constitution. This is a grave abuse of power. Lives are on the line,” she said.

The report likens the Trump administration’s decision to send asylum seekers and immigrants to a notorious Salvadoran prison to the dehumanising tactics routinely employed by repressive and autocratic regimes.

“In February 2025 alone, nearly 500 migrants primarily from African and Asian countries, including pregnant women and young children, were removed or expelled to Costa Rica and Panama,” the report says.

“Many of these transfers occurred without fear screenings and under opaque bilateral agreements. Once in these third countries, asylum seekers faced arbitrary detention and further mistreatment in violation of their human rights.”

The report’s findings included that “many asylum seekers detained by CBP at the southern border who our researchers spoke with went days or weeks without the ability to make a phone call or have any contact with the outside world, including with family and legal counsel. Some asylum seekers reported that they could not make a single call the entire time they were in CBP custody”.

It also found that “in CBP custody, immigration officers subjected asylum seekers to medical neglect, physical and psychological mistreatment, and unbearable living conditions that are especially traumatising for children. Some children were detained separately from one or both parents for days or weeks at a time, were hungry and cold, lacked toys to play with, and/or went over a month barely seeing the sun”.

And, “the US government has unlawfully removed and expelled to the countries they fled or to third countries – without a legally required fear screening – families and adults fleeing Afghanistan, Armenia, Ghana, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and other countries, subjecting people to potential persecution via refoulement or chain refoulement, and violating US and international refugee law”.

Among the report’s recommendations are restoring access to asylum at the southern border as required by US law, referring those fearing persecution or torture to statutorily required fear screenings, and allowing those wrongfully removed, expelled, and disappeared to third countries or home countries to return and seek asylum in the US.

It also called on the administration to immediately cease the transfer of asylum seekers and migrants to third countries in violation of US and international law.

Read the full report: “This is an Order from Trump:” Abuse, Expulsions, and Refoulement of People Seeking Asylum – Refugees International