(CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC) – The Trump administration is preparing to deport Iranians, Afghans, Syrians and other migrants to the Central African Republic, with the first flight expected to carry about 20 people and possibly depart as early as Thursday.

The group is expected to include Iranians, Syrians, Afghans and a Turkish national. U.S. officials plan to send them to one of the world’s poorest countries under an arrangement that could expand well beyond the first transfer.

People sent there would be housed in apartments in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. The plan could eventually be used for hundreds of deportations.

The destination stands out sharply. The Central African Republic is described as one of the world’s poorest countries, and about 70% of its population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank.

That poverty rate gives the deportation plan an immediate humanitarian dimension. Deportees would arrive in a country with deep economic hardship even before any longer-term questions about their legal status or security are resolved.

Two of the Iranians expected to be removed had previously been protected from deportation after U.S. immigration judges found they faced a significant risk of persecution or torture if returned to Iran. Their inclusion in the group shows how far the administration is prepared to go in relying on third-country removals rather than direct return to a home country.

The International Organization for Migration said it would provide post-arrival humanitarian assistance in Bangui at the request of the Central African government. The agency also said it was not involved in carrying out the removals.

That distinction separates the deportation operation from the reception effort on the ground. The administration is arranging the transfers, while IOM’s role begins after arrival with humanitarian support.

The first flight is expected to be limited in size, but the outline points to a broader program. What begins with about 20 people could become a template for a much larger system if the arrangement scales to hundreds of deportations.

Nationalities identified for the first group suggest the administration is drawing from several populations at once rather than focusing on a single country. Iranians, Syrians, Afghans and a Turkish national are all expected to be on the initial removal flight.

That mix also highlights the diplomatic and operational logic behind third-country removals. Some migrants cannot be easily returned to their countries of origin, yet the administration is still pursuing deportation by securing another destination willing to receive them.

Bangui now sits at the center of that arrangement. Apartments in the city are expected to house deportees after they land, at least in the first phase of the plan.

Little in the outline suggests the administration views this as a one-off exercise. The description of a possible pipeline for hundreds of deportations points instead to a system that could be repeated if the first transfer goes ahead.

The choice of the Central African Republic also places the policy inside a wider argument over where governments can send migrants they do not want to keep but cannot, or do not choose to, return directly to their home states. In this case, the administration is preparing to move people from the United States to a country far from their region of origin and far from the legal proceedings that once shielded at least some of them from removal.

Those prior protections matter most in the cases of the two Iranians. U.S. immigration judges had already found that returning them to Iran carried a significant risk of persecution or torture, a finding that had protected them from deportation there.

Removing them instead to the Central African Republic would not erase those earlier rulings, but it would bypass direct return to Iran. The plan shows how third-country removals can alter the practical effect of protection decisions that were based on dangers in a person’s country of origin.

The humanitarian side remains narrow but defined. IOM’s planned assistance in Bangui would come after arrival and at the request of the Central African government, while the agency stresses that it is not participating in the deportation process itself.

That leaves two distinct tracks in place: a U.S.-run removal effort and a post-arrival support response in the Central African Republic. One moves people out. The other receives them after the transfer.

No single element of the plan appears large on its own at the outset. A flight of about 20 people, apartments in Bangui and post-arrival aid can sound limited, but the administration’s expected use of the arrangement for hundreds of deportations points to a policy with far wider reach.

The countries represented on the first flight add to that sense of scope. Iranians, Afghans and Syrians come from states shaped by conflict, repression or both, and the inclusion of a Turkish national shows the operation is not confined to one legal or regional category.

The Central African Republic, meanwhile, is not being presented as a destination with broad resources for resettlement. It is a country where about 70% of the population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank, and where incoming deportees are expected to be placed in apartments in Bangui.

If the first flight departs as early as Thursday, the administration will have taken an initial step toward a third-country deportation plan that reaches from the United States to the heart of Central Africa, sending migrants from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Turkey to a capital city in one of the world’s poorest states.