KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Around 15 people deported from the United States landed in Congo's capital Kinshasa in the early hours of Friday, one of their lawyers told The Associated Press.
It was the latest example of the Trump administration using agreements with African countries to accelerate migrant removals under controversial circumstances that have raised questions about respect for the migrants' rights.
An official at the Congolese migration agency confirmed the arrivals but didn't provide details.
The deportees are all from Latin America and the Congolese government plans to keep them in the country for a short period, said U.S. attorney Alma David, who represents one of the deportees and has been speaking with her client since arriving in Kinshasa.
All the deportees are believed to have legal protection from U.S. judges shielding them against being returned to their home countries, David said. The deportees are believed to be staying at a hotel in Kinshasa.
The International Organization for Migration, a United Nations-affiliated agency, will be involved to offer "assisted voluntary return," David told AP.
"The fact that the focus is on offering them 'voluntary' return to their home country when they spent months in immigration detention in the U.S. fighting hard to not have to go home is very alarming," she said.
The IOM didn't immediately respond to AP's request for comment.
Congo's Ministry of Communications said in a statement earlier this month that it will receive some migrants as part of a new deal under the Trump administration's third-country program.
It described the arrangement as a "temporary" one that reflects Congo's "commitment to human dignity and international solidarity." It would come with zero costs to the government with the U.S. covering the needed logistics, it said.
The statement said no automatic transfer of the deportees is planned, adding: "Each situation will be subject to individual review in accordance with the laws of the Republic and national security requirements."
The U.S. has struck such third-country deportation deals with at least seven other African nations, many of them among countries hit the most by the Trump administration's policies that have restricted trade, aid and migration.
The Trump administration has spent at least $40 million to deport about 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a report released recently by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Lawyers and activists have raised questions over the nature of the deals with countries in Africa and elsewhere. Several of the African nations that have signed such deals have notoriously repressive governments and poor human rights records — including Eswatini, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.
Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Saleh Mwanamilongo in Bonn, Germany contributed to this report.