This is not the proper place to dwell on the excesses of the Trump Administration. Moreover, I wouldn’t’t have enough time or space to do it. However, the following is obviously a violation of the right to asylum. People with albinism need protection of the state and the community, notably in Africa, where the risks of being attacked, kidnapped, mutilated or murdered for reasons of witchcraft are clearly present given the numerous reported cases. It’s a daily reality for a person living with albinism in Sub-Saharan Africa to fear for one’s life. Hence, it is absolutely understandable that a person with albinism who does not get the protection he or she needs, flees to a place where the superstitious and violent practices as they occur in SSA are absent.

This explains the reason of fleeing to the US by a Nigerian with albinism, named Aisha (real name withheld for private and safety reasons). The Trump Administration’s asylum crackdown shattered her dreams of a quit and peaceful life in the US.

How on earth could one decide to deport her to Uganda, a place known for being unsafe and dangerous for persons with albinism?

Uganda is not a ‘safe third country’ for people living with albinism, whatever the US Depart­ment of Home­land Secur­ity may say. It’s an outright scandal, and human rights violation – unfortunately neither the first nor the last of the Trump Administration.

Moreover, the policy of deporting unwanted persons to a so-called safe third country, often poor countries (lamentably, the US is not the only western country resorting to these practices) has definitely (neo-)colonial characteristics. Another reason to reject it.
(webmaster FVDK)

‘I was dev­ast­ated’: the Nigerian with albin­ism depor­ted under Trump’s asylum crack­down

Published: July 1, 2026
By: Sarah Johnson (name has been changed at the subject’s request) – The Guardian

Grow­ing up and liv­ing with albin­ism in rural Nigeria was tough for Aisha*. She and her two sib­lings with the con­di­tion were shrouded in stigma and lived in con­stant fear of being mutil­ated or killed. Her sis­ter was attacked twice and her brother was kid­napped as a child by people who wanted to sell his body parts.

Three years ago, Aisha, 35, entered the US via the bor­der with Mex­ico and registered as an asylum seeker. Her brother had already been gran­ted asylum and her sis­ter’s case was soon to be suc­cess­ful, too.

But in March she was informed that her claim would not be heard and that she would be depor­ted to Uganda instead – a coun­try in east Africa deemed safe by the US Depart­ment of Home­land Secur­ity.

“I was dev­ast­ated and shocked when the judge denied my case,” says Aisha. “All the evid­ence was there – my sib­lings were attacked in Nigeria.

“In Uganda the same thing hap­pens, they take people for [witch­craft] rituals and everything. I don’t know what else they needed for me to show them that I have a legit­im­ate case.”

Albin­ism is an inher­ited genetic con­di­tion that reduces the amount of melanin pig­ment formed in the skin, hair and eyes. It occurs in all eth­nic groups throughout the world. In sub­Sa­ha­ran Africa, the pre­val­ence of albin­ism is the highest world­wide, and it affects more than one in 4,000 people in some coun­tries, accord­ing to the World Health Organ­iz­a­tion.

In coun­tries throughout sub­Sa­ha­ran Africa, includ­ing Nigeria and Uganda, people with albin­ism face severe threats, includ­ing ritual killings, rape and mutil­a­tion. These attacks are driven by harm­ful super­sti­tions that their body parts bring wealth, polit­ical suc­cess and good luck.

Aisha’s law­yer, Ravin­dar Arora, who also rep­res­en­ted her two sib­lings, calls the decision to deny her asylum “ridicu­lous”.

“Hav­ing worked as an immig­ra­tion law­yer in the US for 15 years, I’ve got a good sense of what is a win­nable asylum claim and what’s not,” he says. “This should have been a slam dunk.”

He adds that the Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s immig­ra­tion crack­down has been play­ing havoc with people’s lives and his job. “It’s insane. Trump’s first term was not great … attor­ney gen­er­als were pluck­ing out cases, writ­ing their own decisions and over­turn­ing dec­ades of pre­ced­ent in the pro­cess. That was bad enough. This is eas­ily 10 times worse.”

Accord­ing to Ikpon­wosa Ero, dir­ector of advocacy at Under the Same Sun, a char­ity help­ing people with albin­ism, the rise of anti-immig­rant rhet­oric and far­right move­ments in the US and Europe is lead­ing to more asylum claims for people with albin­ism being denied.

“[These cases were suc­cess­ful] up until the last couple of years, with the changes in admin­is­tra­tions world­wide where people are look­ing more inward,” she says. “Before that, we had an estim­ate of an over-90% suc­cess rate. But with the changes in admin­is­tra­tions and polit­ical approaches [that’s no longer the case].”

Under the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, the US has entered into sev­eral new asylum cooper­at­ive agree­ments (ACAs) accords that allow gov­ern­ments to trans­fer asylum seekers to third coun­tries rather than adju­dic­at­ing their claims domest­ic­ally.

Under these arrange­ments, people may be removed to a “safe third coun­try”, even if they have no ties to that nation. One excep­tion to the ACAs is if someone would be per­se­cuted or tor­tured in the third coun­try.

Arora says he sub­mit­ted evid­ence in Aisha’s case show­ing that people with albin­ism are not safe in Uganda. “We even had an expert wit­ness testify, who is from Uganda and who lives with albin­ism. The judge tried to turn that around on us and said she was liv­ing in Uganda, so it must be safe,” he says.

The Ugandan gov­ern­ment’s action plan for per­sons with albin­ism 2020-25 says they are “a vul­ner­able group that faces mul­tiple and inter­sect­ing forms of dis­crim­in­a­tion and human rights viol­a­tions”.

It adds: “They have been sub­jec­ted to dis­crim­in­a­tion, ban­ish­ment, cut­ting of body parts and ampu­ta­tion of limbs, tor­ture, and murder due to … unfoun­ded beliefs [in witch­craft].”

Arora believes Aisha has a strong case and even if it is rejec­ted at the next stage, the Board of Immig­ra­tion Appeals, they will appeal again.

Aisha, who has mar­ried and had a child since she arrived in the US, says: “I don’t even know what to think. I was really hope­ful and then my [asylum request] was denied. Still, I remain hope­ful that I will be able to pur­sue my goals and live a nor­mal life here.”

• This art­icle was amended on 30 June 2026 to remove some per­sonal inform­a­tion.

Source: ‘I was dev­ast­ated’: the Nigerian with albin­ism depor­ted under Trump’s asylum crack­down