'We don't know what will happen to us': U.S. deportees in limbo in DRC

A view of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo—a sprawling urban giant where over 15 million people live. Schalk Van Zuydam/AP hide caption toggle caption Schalk Van Zuydam/AP KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo—None of them imagined they would end up in Kinshasa. On April 17, the U.S. government deported 15 people to the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a deeply impoverished African country that's been scarred by years of conflict. The group—comprising men and women from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru—is the first to arrive as part of a secretive migration deal brokered with the Trump administration. "They took us, they put us on a plane, and they chained us by our hands and feet," said one Colombian man, sitting on a plastic chair in a shabby hotel near Kinshasa's airport. The deportees didn't know their final destination until they were on the plane, he added. NPR interviewed five of the Latin American deportees. We're not naming them, as they say it could put them at risk from potential threats back in their home countries. All said that they faced danger if they returned, but that they wanted to do so because Congo is dangerous and poor. Several also said that they were deported despite ongoing court cases regarding their right to remain in the U.S. While the deportees are receiving regular meals, water can cut out for days at a time in the hotel, and rodents scurry through their rooms. Mosquitoes are also ubiquitous. …