Ten matters in the Coalition’s register concern Cuban nationals resisting removal. Cuba signed the Convention against Torture on 27 January 1986 and ratified it on 17 May 1995. It has never accepted the article 22 procedure, so no individual can take a complaint about Cuba to the Committee against Torture.
Why this page exists
Cuba is not a state that removes people. It has no arrangement with the United States to receive anybody, and it does not appear in the States Engaging in Refoulement project. It appears here because it is one of the countries people in the register are resisting being returned to, and because a United States immigration judge has granted protection against removal to it.
Cuba is also listed in the Third-Country Removals project, on The Countries page, flagged as a destination country where torture is documented.
What Cuba has accepted, and what it has not
Cuba is among the parties to the Convention against Torture. The depositary record shows signature on 27 January 1986 and ratification on 17 May 1995, nine years later.
What Cuba has not done is accept the individual complaint procedure. Article 22 of the Convention works only against a state that has declared it recognises the Committee’s competence to receive complaints from individuals. Cuba has made no such declaration. Its declarations on the depositary record concern the granting of independence to colonial countries and the settlement of disputes through diplomatic channels. Neither opens a route for a person.
The practical effect is that the treaty binds Cuba and no one subject to its jurisdiction can complain to the Committee about a breach.
What the Committee against Torture found
The Committee examined Cuba and adopted concluding observations on 9 May 2022, at its seventy-third session. In the section on the events of 11 July 2021, at paragraph 42, it recorded:
“The Committee expresses its concern at United Nations reports of alleged arbitrary arrests, excessive use of force and ill-treatment during the social protests of 11 July 2021”
On conditions of detention, at paragraph 22, the Committee recorded allegations of “the systematic ill-treatment and torture of inmates, including physical and verbal abuse, unjustified restrictions on visiting, transfers to prisons far from the prisoner’s family and prolonged solitary confinement”.
Cubans sent to third countries
Human Rights First counts 1,271 cases between January 1998 and 31 August 2026 in which Cuban nationals were granted withholding of removal (768) or protection under the Convention against Torture (503). Source: Human Rights First, 9 October 2026, p. 8
Most Cubans sent to a third country have been sent to Mexico. Human Rights Watch reports that in March 2026 the Department of Justice referred, in a habeas case, to a “standing (unwritten) agreement” with Mexico under which ICE removed “approximately 6,000 Cuban nationals to Mexico in the last year.” Third Country Deportation Watch, from figures Mexico’s National Migration Institute released on request, records 3,753 Cubans among the non-Mexican nationals Mexico received from the United States between 20 January and 31 December 2025, and 2,546 between January and 15 June 2026. Human Rights First reports that Cubans and Venezuelans sent there “are dumped on the streets without immigration documentation”, and that ICE officers pressed a Cuban man with withholding of removal to accept removal to Mexico before his order was final, telling him: “you’re never getting out of here unless it’s to go to Mexico.” Sources: Human Rights Watch, 27 May 2026 · Third Country Deportation Watch, Mexico · Human Rights First, 9 October 2026, pp. 21 and 24
Cubans have also been sent much further. Human Rights Watch records two Cuban men among the eight sent to South Sudan in July 2025 and three Cubans among seven men sent to Rwanda in August 2025. Third Country Deportation Watch records Cubans on the flights to Eswatini of July and October 2025, 30 Cubans among about 121 people transferred to Ecuador through June 2026, two among six people sent to Saint Lucia on 31 August 2026, people from Cuba and Afghanistan in the first transfer to Guyana, on 4 September 2026, and Cubans among the people sent to the Central African Republic on 31 July and 29 August 2026. Sources: HRW, To Scare People, 8 October 2026, pp. 74 and 90 · Third Country Deportation Watch, Eswatini · Third Country Deportation Watch, Ecuador · Third Country Deportation Watch, Saint Lucia · Third Country Deportation Watch, Guyana · Third Country Deportation Watch, Central African Republic
Since 27 October 2026 Third Country Deportation Watch has recorded nationals of Cuba among the 78 people sent to the Central African Republic on 23 October 2026, and nine Cubans who “have also had claims pretermitted and been ordered removed to Honduras pursuant to the ACA, though they are excluded in the implementation plan”, the ACA being the asylum cooperative agreement with Honduras. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has added an entry for Guyana, recording that the six people sent there arrived on 4 September 2026 and that Guyana’s Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud, “said they were vetted and had no criminal records.” Sources: Third Country Deportation Watch, Central African Republic · Third Country Deportation Watch, Honduras · USCRI tracker, Guyana entry
What the register records
The clearest matter is Ibarra-Perez v. United States, Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 27 August 2025. An immigration judge granted Jorge Felix Ibarra-Perez withholding of removal to Cuba. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed him instead to Mexico, a country that had never been designated in his removal proceedings. He objected repeatedly. After two days in Mexico he returned to the United States and sued for damages. On 25 June 2026 the Court of Appeals denied the government’s petition for rehearing en banc. Source: Ibarra-Perez v. United States, No. 24-631, order of 25 June 2026
Santander v. Blanche and Vega Oramas v. Bondi, District of Nevada, decided by Judge Navarro on 22 and 28 October 2026. Two Cuban men with final orders to Cuba, released for years on supervision, were re-detained in 2026 and served with notices of removal to Mexico. The court ordered both released, barred their re-detention without proof of changed circumstances, and barred their removal to a third country without notice and a chance to reopen their cases. The Mexico guide sets out the reasoning. Sources: Santander v. Blanche, ECF 20 · Vega Oramas v. Bondi, ECF 29
Six further matters in the register concern Cuban nationals. All are reachable from the register of court decisions.
Sources
Treaty status: United Nations Treaty Collection, depositary record for the Convention against Torture, chapter IV-9, read 14 September 2026.
Committee against Torture, concluding observations on the third periodic report of Cuba, CAT/C/CUB/CO/3, adopted 9 May 2022: docs.un.org.
Cubans sent to third countries: Human Rights Watch, Casting Us Aside to Die, 27 May 2026, and To Scare People, 8 October 2026, pages 74 and 90; Human Rights First, In the Middle of the Night, They Come and Get You, 9 October 2026, pages 8, 21 and 24; Third Country Deportation Watch, Mexico, Eswatini, Ecuador, Saint Lucia, Guyana, Central African Republic and Honduras, and the USCRI tracker, read 5 November 2026. Ibarra-Perez v. United States, No. 24-631 (9th Cir.), order of 25 June 2026.