NAIROBI, Kenya – The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has announced it will receive “third-country” nationals deported from the United States under a new agreement with the administration of President Donald Trump.
The Congolese Ministry of Communications said in a statement on Sunday that the country will begin accepting deportees this month, although it did not disclose how many individuals are expected.
It described the arrangement as a “temporary” one that reflects Congo’s “commitment to human dignity and international solidarity”.
As part of the arrangement, the US will pay for the deportations, and the Congolese government will face no costs, the statement said.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration continues efforts to broker a peace deal between the DRC and Rwanda and to secure US access to Congolese critical minerals.
Meanwhile, the United States has sent third-country deportees to African countries including Ghana, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Eswatini, drawing 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.
Last week, legal groups in Uganda announced that a dozen deportees were set to arrive in the country after a deal with Trump.
In a statement, the vice president of the Uganda Law Society, Asiimwe Anthony, said that the group had gone to court to challenge the deportation.
“Our perspective of the matter is broader than a single act of deportation. We view it as but one gust from the ill winds of transnational repression that are blowing across our world,” Anthony said.
“This development and the attendant illegalities that accompany it are reminiscent of a dark past that the global family of humanity supposedly put behind itself in the pursuit of the ideal that every human being is born equal.”
According to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, third-country deportations have been “systematically pursued” since February 2025.
“Individuals subject to third-country deportation typically have no choice in where they are sent, a practice that raises serious due process and human rights concerns, particularly when the receiving country may not be safe,” the committee states.
A report by Democratic staff of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee indicates that the Trump administration has spent at least $40 million to deport around 300 migrants to countries other than their own.
