LGBTQ+ migrants sought safety in the U.S. Trump sent them to dangerous countries they’d never known

Some LGBTQ+ migrants who sought safety in the United States have instead been deported to countries they’ve never visited, sometimes places they’d never heard of, where they say they must hide their identities to survive.In 2024, Aylin left her home country of Turkey for the U.S. after a religious group and a close family member threatened her life because she is gay, CNN reports. CNN is using a pseudonym to protect her from reprisals.Now, after 18 months in U.S. immigration detention and deportation to a country she knew nothing about, Aylin is back in Turkey. Her route home took her through Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, where the U.S. deported her in July.“I just hoped to be free,” the 28-year-old said. “To live my life how I want to live, to take a breath. To have friends. A relationship. A good family. My own family. Justice.”Related: Trump admin is trying to deport LGBTQ+ asylum-seekers to countries where they'd be killed, lawyers sayAn immigration judge granted Aylin withholding of removal, a form of protection against deportation to a country where a person faces persecution, according to Immigration Equality. But her bid for asylum was denied, and she spent 18 months in detention.Aylin told CNN she “was handcuffed and shackled,” then placed on a plane without being told her destination until midway through the flight: the Central African Republic, a country she had never heard of.Same-sex marriage has been constitutionally banned in the Central African Republic since 2016. Same-sex sexual activity is legal only in private. Facing limited options in Bangui, Aylin told her family her sexual orientation had changed and returned to Turkey, where anti-LGBTQ crackdowns have intensified.Adwoa — also a pseudonym — is a bisexual Ghanaian who sought refuge in the U.S., only to be deported to Cameroon.The 21-year-old said she endured years of hostility before fleeing after neighbors accused her family of witchcraft because of