The Trump administration’s efforts to significantly broaden the number of countries willing to accept people deported from the United States has found a welcoming partner in the African nation of Rwanda.

A recent U.S. overture, which included a list of names of potential deportees to Rwanda, was received warmly, according to a Rwandan official with knowledge of the situation. Under the proposal, Rwanda would join a growing number of nations — including El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama — that have agreed to receive deportees who are not their citizens.

Though the administration has deported only one person — an Iraqi refugee accused of having links to terrorism groups — from the United States to Rwanda so far, “we’re open to others,” said the Rwandan official, speaking, like some others, on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions or because they are not authorized to talk with the news media.

The deportation discussions have coincided with U.S. efforts to broker a peace agreement between Rwanda and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. They have been in conflict since early 2022 in their most recent round of fighting.

Rwanda has for years promoted itself as a destination for deportations of people who are not its citizens, which critics say is an attempt to downplay its reputation for human rights abuses under its longtime president, Paul Kagame. Britain and Denmark also have explored policies for sending large numbers of asylum seekers to Rwanda, but those efforts were halted after they sparked public outcry and legal challenges.

The State Department, under the Biden administration, said last year that there were reports of “significant human rights issues” in Rwanda, including extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detention. The Trump administration has deported people to other nations with poor human rights records, including El Salvador, where migrants have been housed in a notorious megaprison.

A U.S. official who worked on issues related to Rwanda during the Biden administration said it appears officials there are working to reset the country’s relationship with the United States after the new administration in February imposed sanctions on a Rwandan minister for allegedly supporting an armed group in eastern Congo.

“The cozier that Rwanda gets to the Trump administration, the less likely they are going to press them to make concessions” in any U.S.-brokered peace talks with Congo, the U.S. official said.

The talks between the United States and Rwanda began not long after Trump took office, the Rwandan official said.

“They asked us if we were open to discussing it and we said yes,” the Rwandan official said, adding that “our government, our institutions, have a lot of experience” in this area.

The State Department declined to address questions about future deportations to Rwanda, but in a statement to The Washington Post it tacitly acknowledged the ongoing discussions. “In some cases, we might work with other countries to facilitate the removal from the United States of nationals of third countries who have no legal basis to remain here,” it said, noting, too, that if Rwanda and Congo were to reach peace, it could “unlock further bilateral cooperation.”

During a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that the Trump administration was “actively searching” for nations willing to take citizens from third countries.

“We are working with other countries to say, ‘We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings,’” he said, adding that it would be a “favor to us” and that the “further away from America, the better.”

The administration has cast a wide net in searching for countries that could host third-party deportees, even considering troubled nations such as Libya — which the State Department advises against all travel to because of crime, terrorism and other dangers.

One third-party national, Iraqi citizen Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, was sent to Rwanda this month. Ameen was granted refugee status in the United States in 2014, but he had been the center of a legal battle under both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, which accused him of having links to the Islamic State.

The Trump administration, apparently heeding a judge’s order, asked that Ameen not be sent to his home country of Iraq because of safety concerns, the Rwandan official said, adding that he is allowed to leave the country if he chooses.

The deportation appears to mark the conclusion of Ameen’s lengthy legal battle. He was arrested in 2018 and accused of being part of an Islamic State murder plot in Iraq. Trump administration officials highlighted the case to criticize the vetting process for resettled refugees.

Critics said the evidence against him was weak, and in 2021, a federal judge determined that the allegations against him were “simply not plausible” and ordered his release. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began new deportation proceedings soon after. A judge found that Ameen was eligible to be deported because he lied on immigration papers but barred the United States from sending him to Iraq where, the judge said, he could be tortured.

During the first Trump administration, the United States sent Adham Amin Hassoun, a stateless man born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees, to Rwanda. The United States had sought to deport Hassoun, who had moved to the U.S. in the 1980s, after he had served a sentence on a terrorism-related charge.

Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the pro-democracy nonprofit Vanguard Africa, said any plan to deport immigrants to Rwanda would be both “morally and legally reprehensible.”

“This is merely a ploy to garner positive headlines and a cynical way in which to compel Western governments, like the U.S., to look the other way when inevitable human rights abuses are committed,” Smith said.

Ongoing peace talks between Rwanda and Congo are being spearheaded by a new U.S. envoy for Africa: Massad Boulos, father-in-law of Tiffany Trump, the president’s daughter. In a notable shift from prior peace talks, they have focused on the economic opportunities presented by large amounts of rare earth and other critical minerals in Congo’s politically unstable eastern region.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe visited Washington last week, where he met with Rubio and Congolese Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner. They set a goal of reaching a peace agreement by Friday.

Rubio praised Boulos’s efforts as he spoke at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, saying he had defied the expectations of people who said it could “never be done.”

Abigail Hauslohner and John Hudson contributed to this report.