A Moroccan woman who fled her home after experiencing violence over her sexuality said she was deported from the United States to a country that also considers homosexuality a crime, despite receiving legal protection from an American judge.The 21-year-old, known as Farah for safety reasons, told the Associated Press that she is now back in Morocco and living in hiding after first being sent to Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal, and then returning to her homeland.In Morocco, being gay can land you in prison for up to three years, and Farah said her life was in danger because of her sexual orientation. Before fleeing, she said her family and her partner’s family beat her when they discovered her relationship and later tried to kill her.
She was forced out of her home and traveled with her partner to a new city to escape further violence.With the help of a friend, she and her partner obtained visas to go to Brazil and then made their way through six countries to reach the US border, where they sought asylum in early 2025. “You find yourself in really horrific situations,” Farah said. She added: “When we arrived (at the American border), we felt that it was worth it and that we had reached our goal.”
Instead of freedom, Farah spent nearly a year in immigration detention centers, first in Arizona and then in Louisiana. She described the centers as very cold, with only thin blankets, and said that medical care was insufficient.Although her asylum request was denied, a US immigration judge later issued a protection order, ruling that returning her to Morocco would put her life in danger. Her partner, who did not obtain a protection order, was deported.Just three days before she was scheduled to be released, Farah said she was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and put on a flight to Cameroon, a country she had never visited before and where homosexuality is also illegal. She was placed in a detention center there. “They asked me if I wanted to stay in Cameroon, and I told them that I could not stay in Cameroon and risk my life in a place where I was still at risk,” she said.
She was later returned to Morocco.Farah is one of several people whose deportation from the United States to third countries has been confirmed despite obtaining protective orders from US immigration judges. Lawyers say the Trump administration has used third-country deportations as a way to push immigrants who are in the country illegally to leave on their own.Legal experts say sending people with protective orders to countries where they face serious harm violates U.S. immigration law, international treaties and due process rights. “By deporting them…the United States not only violated their due process rights, it violated our own immigration laws,” immigration attorney Alma David said.Farah said the experience was unfair and cruel. “The United States is built on immigration and migrant labor, so clearly we don’t pose all the threats,” she said. She added: “What happened to me was unfair. Just being deported in this way is cruel.”
