File: Jorge Salvador Cabrera/Getty Images
Most of the South American migrants sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo under a controversial U.S. deportation deal have now left the Central African country, returning to their home nations after weeks in an unfamiliar land where they neither spoke the language nor had any ties.
Nine of the 15 migrants flown from the United States to Kinshasa on April 17 have since departed Congo, according to the Congolese government, a remaining migrant and her lawyer. A Colombian woman still in the capital and her lawyer told reporters the nine who left comprised four Peruvians and five Colombians. Three Colombians and three Ecuadorians remain in Congo.
Congo’s government confirmed in a Friday statement that “more than half” of the group had returned to their countries of origin, adding that the rest would follow “shortly.” It did not say whether the departures were voluntary. The Colombian migrant said seven had left with assistance from the International Organization for Migration, a UN agency, while two others had departed independently.
The migrants had told reporters they felt pressured to return home despite safety concerns, with one 29-year-old Colombian woman saying: “We feel pressured to agree to go back to our country, regardless of the risks.” All the deportees were believed to have legal protection from U.S. judges shielding them from being returned to their home countries.
The group’s arrival in Congo last month was part of a bilateral agreement Kinshasa struck with the Trump administration. Congo described the arrangement as a “temporary” one reflecting its “commitment to human dignity and international solidarity,” with the U.S. government covering all costs. The deal came as the Trump administration was pursuing efforts to broker a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda and to secure U.S. access to Congolese critical minerals.
Congo is not the only African country drawn into such arrangements. Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini are among several nations that have agreed to accept third-country deportees as part of the broader U.S. immigration crackdown. According to a report by the Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Trump administration has spent at least $40 million deporting around 300 migrants to countries other than their own.
The practice has drawn sharp criticism. A key point of contention in many such agreements is that they involve migrants who hold protection orders from U.S. immigration judges barring their return home due to serious safety concerns. Rights groups and legal experts have repeatedly questioned the legal basis for the transfers and the welfare of deportees dispatched to countries where they have no nationality, no language and no support networks.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah