Eight of the 15 Latin Americans the U.S. deported to Congo in April have now returned to their countries of origin, the Congolese government and one of the migrants’ lawyers said on Friday.
The returns include four Peruvians and three Colombians who flew home earlier this week with help from the International Organization for Migration and a Colombian man who returned on his own in recent days. Alma David, a lawyer for one of the deportees, said the count now stands at eight.
The migrants had been removed under the Trump administration’s use of third‑country deportation arrangements; U.S. immigration judges had ruled that many of them were likely to face persecution if returned to their home countries. The transfers to Congo were among a broader set of agreements the administration used to send thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries.
The IOM said the assisted departures took place through its Assisted Voluntary Return program and emphasized the organization’s standard practice: "strictly voluntary and based on free, prior and informed consent." The Congolese government described the movement as temporary and limited, saying, "These developments confirm the strictly transitional, temporary, and time-limited nature of this mechanism, as announced from its launch," and adding that "Further departures will take place shortly as part of the implementation of the arrangement."
David, however, said the returns may not reflect wholly free choices. "The fact that they chose to return there anyway raises serious concerns that they likely felt backed into a corner because no viable alternative was presented to them," she said.
One Colombian woman represented by David remains in Congo, as does Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata, who was deported there despite Congo’s earlier refusal to accept her because it could not meet her medical needs. A federal judge ordered the U.S. government last month to bring Quiroz Zapata back to the United States; she remains in Congo while that order and its implications remain unresolved.
The concrete numbers underline why the case is being watched: 15 people were removed in April to a country that is not their own, and more than half have since left Congo. Four Peruvians and three Colombians came home with IOM assistance earlier this week, and a separate Colombian man arranged his own travel home in recent days, tallying the eight departures officials reported.
Those figures matter because the migrants had federal court protections against removal to their home countries, a legal determination that normally blocks repatriation where judges find a risk of persecution. The use of third‑country deportation deals — Congo is one of at least eight African nations with such arrangements with the United States — created a pathway for the U.S. to move people without sending them directly to the countries where courts had found danger.
The friction between official accounts and lawyers’ concerns is the clearest unresolved element. The IOM’s insistence that the returns were voluntary sits alongside David’s contention that constrained choices and a lack of viable alternatives likely pushed people to accept repatriation. That gap is central to whether the departures should be understood as true voluntary returns or as effectively compelled exits.
For now, Congolese officials say more departures will follow shortly as part of the arrangement; lawyers and rights groups say the remaining questions go beyond scheduling. The single most consequential unanswered question is whether the migrants who remain — including Quiroz Zapata, who a judge ordered returned to the U.S. — were able to make free, informed decisions, or whether pressure and lack of options produced a de facto deportation despite the language of voluntariness.
