KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – The Congolese government announced Sunday it has agreed to accept deported migrants from the United States under the Trump administration’s controversial third-country deportation program, making it the latest African nation to sign on to the controversial policy framework. According to an official statement released by the Congolese Ministry of Communications, the first group of deportees is scheduled to arrive in the country before the end of this month. The government did not release additional details, including an exact arrival date or the total number of migrants that will be transferred to Congolese territory.
Congo’s government framed the arrangement as a temporary commitment, emphasizing that the agreement aligns with the country’s stated dedication to upholding human dignity and advancing international solidarity. The statement also clarified that the deal will impose no financial burden on Congolese public finances, with the U.S. government covering all logistical costs associated with the migrant transfers.
This new agreement puts Congo among at least eight African nations that have now reached similar third-country deportation deals with the U.S. Many of these participating nations have already been heavily impacted by other Trump administration policies, including sweeping restrictions on trade, foreign aid and legal migration pathways. Recent data from a report compiled by Democratic staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee shows the Trump administration has allocated at least $40 million in public funding to deport roughly 300 migrants to third-party countries outside the migrants’ native nations.
Human rights lawyers and migration activists have raised widespread concerns over the structure and ethics of these deals with African partner states. Multiple nations that have already agreed to the pacts are led by notoriously repressive regimes with documented poor human rights records, including Eswatini, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea.
A central point of controversy is that many of the migrants being transferred via these programs already hold formal protection orders from U.S. immigration judges, which bar the U.S. from deporting them back to their home countries due to extreme safety risks including violence, persecution, and threats to their lives. Unlike some previous agreements that have allowed for blanket transfers, the Congolese government has confirmed it will not implement automatic, mass transfers of incoming deportees. Instead, officials noted every migrant’s case will undergo individual review, with assessments conducted in alignment with Congolese national law and domestic national security requirements.