DAKAR, June 5 (Reuters) – Nine out of 15 migrants deported from the United States to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April have returned to their home countries, Congo’s government, a migrant and her lawyer said on Friday.
• The 15 migrants arrived in Congo on April 17 as part of a bilateral agreement with the Trump administration announced two weeks earlier to accept third-country deportees from the United States.
• Congo’s government said in a statement on Friday that “more than half” of the migrants had since returned to their countries and that others would return “shortly”.
• A Colombian migrant who remains in Kinshasa and her lawyer told Reuters that nine migrants had returned, including four Peruvians and five Colombians. The remaining migrants include three Colombians and three Ecuadorians.
• Congo’s government did not say whether the migrants had returned voluntarily. The Colombian migrant said seven had returned with help from the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency, while the other two had left on their own.
• Reuters previously reported that several migrants had been granted legal protection in the U.S., with judges ruling they were more likely than not to face persecution if returned. Reuters could not verify whether any of the nine had such protections.
• Similar U.S. deportation deals with other countries have drawn 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.
(Reporting by Clement BonnerotEditing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Gareth Jones)
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