'We don't know what will happen to us': U.S. deportees in limbo in DRC

Africa 'We don't know what will happen to us': U.S. deportees in limbo in DRC Updated April 28, 20266:00 AM ET Originally published April 28, 20266:00 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Emmet Livingstone 'We don’t know what will happen to us': U.S. deportees in limbo in DRC Listen · 3:44 3:44 Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5798775/nx-s1-9747329" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> A view of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo—a sprawling urban giant where over 15 million people live. Schalk Van Zuydam/AP hide caption toggle caption Schalk Van Zuydam/AP KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo—None of them imagined they would end up in Kinshasa. On April 17, the U.S. government deported 15 people to the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a deeply impoverished African country that's been scarred by years of conflict. The group—comprising men and women from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru—is the first to arrive as part of a secretive migration deal brokered with the Trump administration. "They took us, they put us on a plane, and they chained us by our hands and feet," said one Colombian man, sitting on a plastic chair in a shabby hotel near Kinshasa's airport. The deportees didn't know their final destination until they were on the plane, he added. Sponsor Message NPR interviewed five of the Latin American deportees. We're not naming them, as they say it could put them at risk from potential threats back in their home countries. All said that they faced danger if they returned, but that they wanted to do so because Congo is dangerous and poor. Several also said that they were deported despite ongoing court cases regarding their right to remain in the U.S. While the deportees are receiving regular meals, water can cut out for days at a time in the hotel, and rodents scurry through their rooms. Mosquitoes are also ubiquitous. They are free to leave their hotel, but are being urged by security there to remain inside—effectively cut off in a country they have no links to, and whose language they do not speak. Two of the deportees said they hadn't been vaccinated against yellow fever before being expelled from the U.S. The mosquito-borne disease is endemic in Congo, alongside malaria. "I know that Congo has an armed conflict, with a yellow fever outbreak," said one Ecuadoran man, explaining why he didn't want to stay. Much of eastern Congo, about 1,000 miles from Kinshasa, has been plagued by violence for decades, a legacy of regional wars that raged in the region in the 1990s and early 2000s. Sponsor Message Rebels from the Rwanda-backed group, M23, have also captured huge swathes of territory since launching an insurgency in late 2021, and are running a parallel government administration in the east. But there is also armed conflict happening about 70-100 miles northeast of Kinshasa. Kinshasa itself is a megacity of over 15 million people, according to the World Bank, where the vast majority of inhabitants struggle to live day to day. "Outside is another world," said one Colombian woman in the hotel, who noted that none of the group could speak French, Congo's official language. A quiet deal with visible consequences While more deportees from the U.S. are expected to arrive, almost no details concerning the U.S.-Congo migration deal have been made public. Congo isn't the only African country with…

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