More African countries to receive Trump deportees

Congo will receive some migrants as part of a new deal under the Trump administration’s third-country programme, its government said yesterday (Sunday), the latest such African nation to receive migrants being deported from the US. The deportees will start arriving in Congo this month, the Congolese Ministry of Communications said in a statement, without further details on the date or the number of deportees expected, reports africanews. It described the arrangement as a ‘temporary’ one that reflects Congo’s ‘commitment to human dignity and international solidarity’. It would come with zero costs to the government with the US covering the needed logistics, it said. The US has struck such third-country deportation deals with at least seven other African nations, many of them among countries hit the most by the Trump administration’s policies that have restricted trade, aid and migration. The Trump administration has spent at least $40m to deport about 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a report released recently by the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Lawyers and activists have raised questions over the nature of the deals with countries in Africa and elsewhere. Several of the African nations that have signed such deals have notoriously repressive governments and poor human rights records – including eSwatini, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea. A key bone of contention in many such agreements is that they involve many migrants with protection orders from a US immigration judge not to be returned to their home countries over major safety concerns. Congo’s government said no automatic transfer of the deportees is planned, adding: ‘Each situation will be subject to individual review in accordance with the laws of the Republic and national security requirements.’

Full africanews report

Meanwhile, a group of 12 deportees from the US landed in Uganda on Thursday, the Uganda Law Society said, according to a CNBC Africa report. This marks the first transfer under a bilateral agreement that designates Uganda as a destination for migrants the US cannot return to their home countries. The deportation highlights the expansion of President Donald Trump’s third-country deportations policy, which has faced legal and human rights criticisms over concerns it sends individuals to unfamiliar nations with no personal ties. Yasmeen Hibrawi, public affairs counsellor at the US Embassy in Kampala, said that all transfers under a Safe Third Country Agreement, signed by both countries, ‘are in full cooperation with the Government of Uganda’. ‘We do not, however, discuss the details of our private diplomatic communications and for privacy reasons, we cannot discuss the particulars to their cases,’ Hibrawi said. Uganda’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters. A senior Ugandan government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrivals and said the deportees would remain in Uganda as part of ‘a transition phase for potential onward transmission to other countries’. It was not clear what nationalities the deportees were. The arrivals make Uganda the latest African nation to accept non-national deportees from the US, joining others such as Ghana, South Sudan, Cameroon, and eSwatini. The law society said the deportees, who arrived at Entebbe International Airport early on Thursday, had been subjected to what it described as an ‘undignified, harrowing and dehumanising process’. It added that it planned to challenge the legality of their deportation in court. In August, Ugandan officials clarified that they will not accept deportees with criminal records or unaccompanied minors, favouring individuals of African descent.

Full CNBC Africa report