US to Deport Migrants to Democratic Republic of Congo Under Kinshasa Deal

(KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO) – The United States is deporting an estimated 37 to 45 migrants to the Democratic Republic of Congo this week under a third-country deportation arrangement, bringing Congo into the program for the first time.

The migrants are expected to arrive in Kinshasa by Friday. Congolese authorities plan to place them in a hotel near the airport for about 10 to 15 days, in single rooms with basic provisions and security provided by Congolese police and private contractors.

None of the deportees are Congolese nationals. They come largely from Central and South America, including Colombia, Peru, Chile and Guatemala.

The move extends a U.S. policy of sending migrants to countries other than their own. Washington has already pursued similar arrangements with at least seven other African countries, including Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Eswatini.

Congo’s entry into the program places the Democratic Republic of Congo inside a deportation system that has drawn scrutiny from rights groups and legal experts. They have questioned the legal basis for sending people to countries where they have no formal ties, and they have raised concerns about what such transfers mean once the initial receiving period ends.

That concern is especially sharp in this case because the immediate plan covers only the first stage after arrival. Authorities expect the migrants to stay near the airport for roughly two weeks, but the arrangement published so far does not extend beyond that temporary hotel stay.

The Congolese government has indicated it will not bear the financial costs of hosting the deportees. The terms governing payment, responsibilities and any next steps have not been published.

Those unpublished details leave basic questions unresolved. The record made public so far does not show what legal status the migrants would hold in Congo after the hotel period, whether they would be allowed to move freely, or whether they would face transfer elsewhere.

Security around the arrival has also been defined more clearly than the migrants’ longer-term future. Congolese police and private contractors are set to guard the hotel, a sign that authorities expect the reception process to be tightly controlled from the moment the group lands in Kinshasa.

The countries listed among the deportees’ places of origin, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Guatemala, underscore the distance between the migrants and the destination chosen for them. The third-country deportation arrangement does not involve returning them to their own states; it sends them to a country in Central Africa that is not their country of nationality.

That structure has become a central point of criticism from rights groups and legal experts. Their concern is not limited to transport or temporary shelter, but to the broader practice of relocating migrants to states where they arrive without established family, residency or other formal ties.

The Congo arrangement also widens the geographic reach of the U.S. program inside Africa. With previous agreements already pursued with at least seven African countries, the addition of the Democratic Republic of Congo suggests Washington is continuing to build out a network of receiving states for removals that do not end in a migrant’s home country.

Even within the limited outline available, the arrangement sets out a defined first stop: arrival by Friday, transfer to a hotel near the airport, single-room accommodation, basic provisions, and security by state police and private contractors. Beyond that, the future facing the deportees remains unsettled.

That unresolved final stage is likely to keep the deal under pressure as the migrants arrive in Kinshasa. The United States has set the transfer in motion; Congo has agreed to receive them temporarily; what follows after 10 to 15 days remains the question hanging over this third-country deportation arrangement.