The first migrants deported from the United States (US) under a recent bilateral agreement arrived in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) early this Friday, according \u200cto one of the migrants, a lawyer in contact with the group and two airport sources.<\/p>\n
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The plane carrying the deportees, from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, landed in Kinshasa at around 02:00 CAT, flight tracking data showed.<\/p>\n
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A Colombian woman among the group, who spoke to Reuters<\/em>, said there were 16 migrants, nine men and seven women. An airport source put the number of arrivals at 15.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n DRC’s Interior Ministry and \u2060a Spokesperson for the Congolese Presidency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reuters<\/em> reported on Wednesday that more than 30 migrants were expected to be deported to DRC this week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alma David, a US-based lawyer representing one of the migrants, said the lower number of arrivals could be due to last-minute interventions by US federal judges. She said she was aware of at least three cases in which judges halted removals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is unclear how many people could ultimately be deported under the agreement between Washington and Kinshasa, announced on April 5.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ‘VERY LONG’ JOURNEY, MIGRANT SAYS<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “The flight was very calm. They treated us well and gave us enough food,” said the Colombian migrant, who \u200cspoke on \u2060condition of anonymity for safety reasons.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “It was very long, around 26 or 27 hours.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Flight tracking data showed the plane departed from Alexandria, Louisiana, stopping in Dakar, Senegal, and Accra, Ghana, before reaching Kinshasa.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is the first transfer of so-called third-country deportees to DRC, a country grappling with widespread insecurity, displacement, and a fragile asylum system.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The deportation agreement coincides with the Trump \u2060administration’s efforts to implement a US-brokered peace deal between DRC and Rwanda aimed at ending fighting with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in eastern DRC that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It also follows the signing of a strategic partnership granting the \u2060United States preferential access to DRC’s critical minerals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once in DRC, the deportees were told they had been granted a seven-day visa allowing them to move freely in the country, which could be extended for up to \u2060three months, the Colombian migrant said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The group was also informed that they were welcome to apply for asylum in DRC, though officials discouraged them from doing so, warning DRC was dangerous, the migrant said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32314,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-32313","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"First migrants deported from the US under a recent bilateral agreement arrived in DRC","published_date":"2026-04-17 16:40:09","news_description":"First migrants deported from the US under a recent bilateral agreement arrived in DRC","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32313","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32315,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32313\/revisions\/32315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}