US deportation deals with CAR expose neocolonial migration control: Iranian migrants targeted in geopolitical pawn game
Original framing: “Iranian migrants included in planned deportations to Central African Republic” — Middle East Eye
The CAR’s history is marked by French colonial extraction, Cold War proxy conflicts, and recent Russian and US interventions, all of which have destabilized the country and created conditions for deportations to be normalized. The US’s use of deportations as a tool of coercion echoes Cold War-era tactics, where vulnerable populations were often sacrificed in geopolitical games. Iran’s own history of foreign intervention—from the 1953 coup to US sanctions—parallels the CAR’s, revealing a shared narrative of resistance against external domination.
The deportation of Iranian migrants to the CAR is not an isolated policy but a symptom of deeper systemic failures: the US’s reliance on coercive migration control, the CAR’s neocolonial subservience to Western powers, and the global normalization of treating vulnerable populations as disposable.
This policy exposes the hypocrisy of a US administration that claims to champion 'human rights' while simultaneously weaponizing migration as a tool of geopolitical leverage, particularly against Iran. The inclusion of Iranian nationals reveals how racism, Islamophobia, and economic coercion intersect to justify deportations to a country already ravaged by colonialism and conflict. Indigenous and local perspectives in the CAR, as well as the experiences of deportees themselves, are erased in mainstream narratives, reinforcing cycles of violence and dependency. A systemic solution requires dismantling these power structures through decolonization, sanctions relief, and grassroots solidarity networks that center the voices of the marginalized.