Overview
- A U.S. charter carrying about 15 to 16 migrants reached Kinshasa early Friday in the first transfer under a new U.S.–DRC deportation agreement.
- The group included people from Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador after a 26 to 27 hour journey that left Alexandria, Louisiana, with stops in Dakar and Accra.
- On arrival, officials told the migrants they had seven-day visas that can extend to three months and said they could seek asylum in Congo, though they warned the country is dangerous.
- A U.S. lawyer said the deportees had court orders protecting them from return to their home countries, and she reported that federal judges blocked several planned removals this week.
- Congo describes the arrangement as temporary with U.S. logistical funding, and the U.N. migration agency was asked to assist, in a broader U.S. program that has spent about $40 million to send roughly 300 people to third countries.