South American migrants expelled from the United States to the DRC: They never explained to me why

For Colombian Carlos Rodelo, the “American dream turned into an unexpected nightmare,” writes Caracol Radio on its website. Stopped by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), this man was deported from the United States along with 14 other nationals from South American countries to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A country with which the Trump administration has signed an agreement to welcome migrants in irregular situations, like Ghana, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Eswatini.

A victim of extortion in Colombia, Rodelo still had protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT), an international legal instrument that prohibits the expulsion of a person to a country where their life or physical integrity may be threatened. An ban circumvented by US authorities, who deported him to a “third country” supposedly safer for him than his native Colombia, even though the DRC is a country at war.

Kafkaesque situations

Bound and handcuffed, Rodelo spent twenty-four hours on a plane, with a layover in Ghana and another in Senegal. “I thought they were going to send me to Barranquilla [a major city in northern Colombia], but they told me no, that they were taking me to