{"id":30763,"date":"2026-04-04T09:05:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30763"},"modified":"2026-04-04T09:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:09:29","slug":"drc-in-talks-with-us-over-third-country-deportations","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/drc-in-talks-with-us-over-third-country-deportations\/","title":{"rendered":"DRC in talks with US over third-country deportations \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in talks with the Trump administration about receiving deportees from other countries, two government sources in Kinshasa told <em>Reuters<\/em>, in what would be \u200cthe latest of several such agreements reached in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The discussions, also described by three United Nations (UN) sources and two diplomats briefed by United States (US) officials, underscore Washington&#8217;s growing reliance on so-called third-country deportations to speed up removals of migrants who entered or remain in the US without authorisation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The arrangements are often negotiated quietly, with limited \u2060public detail on their scope or terms.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The talks with DRC are coinciding with an effort by the Trump administration to implement a peace deal between DRC and Rwanda and an agreement ensuring US access to Congolese critical minerals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>LEGAL EXPERTS CRITICISE THIRD-COUNTRY DEALS<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The US has sent third-country deportees to African countries including Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and eSwatini, drawing criticism from legal experts and rights groups over the legal basis for the transfers and the treatment of deportees sent to countries where they are not nationals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some of the migrants have been \u200cforced \u2060home despite receiving court-ordered protection in the US meant to prevent that from happening.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The talks with DRC have not yet resulted in an agreement and key details remain unresolved, the Congolese sources said. It is not yet known when the first deportation flights might take place, how \u2060many migrants could be involved or their nationalities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is also unclear what DRC if anything, would receive in return for accepting deportees.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A source at the UN&#8217;s International Organisation for Migration familiar with the \u2060discussions told Reuters the plan could involve migrants from South America, including Venezuelans.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A State Department Spokesperson said Washington had &#8220;no comment on the details of our diplomatic communications with \u2060other governments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A Spokesperson for DRC&#8217;s Presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30770,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78],"class_list":["post-30763","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"DRC is in talks with the Trump administration about receiving deportees","published_date":"2026-04-04 09:06:04","news_description":"DRC is in talks with the Trump administration about receiving deportees","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30769,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30763\/revisions\/30769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}