US Deportation Flight Turns Back After Pakistan Refuses Iranians

A US deportation flight carrying Iranian detainees turned back to Arizona on Tuesday, after Pakistan reportedly refused to accept the group for onward transfer to Iran.

The small charter jet had left Mesa, Arizona, just before 5 am local time. About 30 minutes later, it turned around and landed back where it started, according to Human Rights First, a Washington based group that tracks deportation flights.

At least nine Iranian nationals were on board. By Tuesday afternoon, they had been taken off the plane and returned to an immigration detention facility in Arizona.

US deportation flight: what happened over Arizona

The flight was operated for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. The aircraft was a small Talon charter jet with a capacity of 17 people.

Lawyers for the detainees said the group was to be flown to Pakistan first. From there, the men were to be transferred onward to Iran.

The transfer never happened. A US official and a relative of one detainee told The New York Times that Pakistan abruptly declined to accept the group.

ABC News, citing two sources familiar with the situation, reported the same refusal. The reason for Pakistan's decision remains unclear.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on the aborted flight.

The second failed attempt in three days

Tuesday's flight was not the first try. An earlier flight scheduled for Sunday was cancelled after the detainees had already boarded the plane, a lawyer with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund said.

On that occasion, at least eight Iranians were taken onto the aircraft in Mesa before the operation was abandoned. They were then returned to detention.

Reports said the Sunday routing was meant to pass through Georgia before heading onwards to Pakistan.

It was the second US deportation flight aimed at Iran to collapse within three days, and each failure has added legal and political pressure to the case.

Flight trackers and legal groups now watch every US deportation flight leaving Mesa closely, because the airport has become the staging point for these removals.

Why the US deportation flight needed Pakistan

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran. That makes direct deportation flights between the two countries very difficult to arrange.

Every US deportation flight to Iran therefore needs a partner country willing to handle the transfer, and Pakistan was chosen for that role.

According to The New York Times, the Trump administration is planning at least two operations this month to deport people to Iran and Afghanistan, using Pakistan as the transfer point for both countries.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said last week that a proposed arrangement for deportations to Afghanistan was under consideration.

Tuesday's refusal suggests that the Iran side of that plan, at least, has not been agreed. There has been no public word from Islamabad explaining the decision.

The US has managed such removals before. The Associated Press reported that three deportation flights to Iran between September 2025 and January 2026 removed more than 100 Iranians.

What the two sides say

A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said the people on Tuesday's flight had criminal histories and final removal orders against them.

US officials have linked members of the group to offences including assault, drug trafficking, child abuse, domestic violence and unlawful possession of firearms. Those claims come from the department, and they have not been tested in this reporting.

The detainees' lawyers see the case very differently. The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund has accused ICE of sharing confidential asylum information with Iranian authorities, which it says puts vulnerable applicants at serious risk.

The fund has challenged the deportations through court filings. It was through those filings that the details of the planned transfers first became public.

US deportation flight: common questions

Why did the US deportation flight turn back? According to a US official and a detainee relative cited by The New York Times, Pakistan declined to accept the Iranian group for transit, so the plane returned to Arizona.

How many people were on the US deportation flight? At least nine Iranian nationals, according to a relative of one detainee. The small charter jet had a capacity of 17 people.

Where did the US deportation flight take off from? It departed Mesa, Arizona, just before 5 am local time on Tuesday, and it landed back at the same airport about 30 minutes later.

Has Pakistan explained its refusal? No. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to comment, and no official reason for the refusal has been given.

Was this the first attempt to deport the group? No. A flight on Sunday was cancelled after at least eight detainees had already boarded the aircraft in Mesa.

For now, the men at the centre of the US deportation flight dispute are back in detention in Arizona. The next move belongs to Washington and Islamabad.