US-deported Latin American migrants await their fate in DRC

The group of 15, hailing from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, arrived last Friday in the central African country and are currently being accommodated at Venus Village, a dilapidated hotel complex on the outskirts of the capital.

Granted one-week visas on arrival, they must now decide whether to return to their home countries or remain in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

None of them speak French – the country's official language.

The DRC – one of a number of African nations that have agreed to take in deported migrants – is one of the world's 15 poorest countries, thousands of kilometres from the Americas.

“For now, my living conditions are stable. I have a room to sleep in, three meals a day and, at this stage, I feel fine,” Hugo Palencia, a 25-year-old Colombian, told RFI. He said he spent five months in US detention before being deported to DRC.

“I don’t go out – not on the streets or anywhere else. But for now, I'm OK,” he added.

Others, who chose to speak anonymously, told of their detention in US immigration centres, being given less than 24 hours warning of deportation and a rushed departure from Louisiana.

They spoke of a 27-hour flight with stopovers in Dakar and Accra, arriving at N’djili airport in the middle of the night, in heavy heat and humidity, before being taken to Venus Village.

Since then, they've rarely left the site.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli