Yasmany Moreno de Armas, the Cuban deported by the United States to Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, posted a series of videos on Facebook warning that several migrants in the group are contracting malaria and that at least one of them was on the verge of fainting without receiving timely medical attention.
In the recordings, Moreno shows his visibly weakened companions and identifies one of them, Arístides, who is very ill. “Now everyone is getting sick with malaria. Everyone here,” he warns in one of the clips.
One of the most striking videos shows Arístides Fernández García waiting to be seen by a doctor while barely able to stand.
The affected individual himself attributed his condition to the food: "I got sick here from the food; it seems I became ill from something here, with the food, something very strange. The handling of food here is not very good," he is heard saying in the recording.
Moreno, visibly distressed, described the seriousness of the situation with these words: "He needs medication; he is dying, look at how he is. And he is strong, he is strong and he is dying."
The health situation is worsening in a country deemed to be at extremely high risk of malaria year-round. The Central African Republic recorded nearly two million cases and over 2,000 deaths from this disease in 2023, according to data from international health organizations.
Deported migrants, without prior immunity to tropical diseases and with limited access to medications, are especially vulnerable.
In addition to the health crisis, Moreno reported that a meeting with representatives from the UN, which the group was eagerly anticipating, never came to fruition. "Today they canceled the meeting with the people from the UN at the last minute; they never showed up... we waited for about three hours, everything was prepared, the chair set up, and the people from the UN never arrived," he recounted in another video.
Moreno closed his videos with a direct message to his followers: "Thank you and keep sharing these videos so that they can see what continues to happen every day here in the Central African Republic, Bangui."
Moreno was deported to Bangui on August 1, 2026, handcuffed at the wrists, waist, and ankles, after spending nearly a year in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida.
According to his own testimony, he learned that his destination was Africa only when the plane was approaching Bangui, approximately five hours after takeoff. He suffers from diabetes and asthma, and has reported difficulties in obtaining his medication.
The transfer is part of a deportation policy to third countries implemented by Washington in 2026.
The United States signed an agreement with the Central African Republic that included 85 million dollars for operations of the International Organization for Migration in that territory. In total, at least 92 people were sent to the CAR on three flights between June and August 2026.
The deportees remain accommodated in Bangui without passports or immigration documents, facing movement restrictions and without a defined legal solution.
The UN mission in the CAR, MINUSCA, provides them with food, but it has not resolved their legal situation.
A federal judge in Massachusetts declared this policy of deporting individuals to third countries illegal due to the lack of prior notification to those affected, although the ruling has been stayed while litigation continues.
La situación de los cubanos deportados a terceros países es parte de un panorama migratorio en constante cambio. Sigue toda la información actualizada en nuestra sección de
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