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United States and DR Congo signed undisclosed third-country removal agreement

The United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo reached a third-country removal agreement via diplomatic notes dated December 24, 2025, not disclosed until the State Department posted it in June 2026. Fifteen people with U.S.-granted humanitarian protections were forcibly transferred to DRC on April 17, 2026, shackled throughout a 27-hour flight and given only 24 hours' notice of their destination; a U.S. judge later found one woman's removal was likely unlawful and ordered her return.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
United States; destination Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa)

Abuses documented

Actors

The United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo reached a third-country removal agreement through an exchange of diplomatic notes dated December 24, 2025, which was not made public until the State Department posted it on its website in June 2026. On April 18, 2026, 15 people from South American countries who had been granted humanitarian protections in the U.S. arrived in Kinshasa on a deportation flight; they had learned of their destination just 24 hours before departure and were shackled throughout the 27-hour journey, according to reporting by the Institute for Security Studies.

The DRC government subsequently pressured several of the deportees to return to their home countries despite the U.S. protections that had barred their removal there in the first place. A U.S. federal judge later ordered officials to return one woman among the group, finding she had likely been deported unlawfully. An Ebola outbreak in DRC paused further transfers under the agreement beginning in May 2026.

Why we recorded this

Giving a person 24 hours' notice before shackling them for a 27-hour flight to a country they have no connection to, despite an immigration judge having already found they qualify for protection from removal, is due process denial in its most physically coercive form. The DRC agreement, dated December 24, 2025 but undisclosed for six months, produced exactly that outcome for at least 15 people that April — one of whom a federal judge later found had likely been removed illegally.

Sources

  1. US-Africa migrant deals ramp up as government transparency fails — Institute for Security Studies (ISS Africa) investigative accessed July 31, 2026
  2. Democratic Republic of the Congo — Third Country Deportation Watch investigative accessed July 31, 2026

See also