For Colombian Carlos Rodelo, the “American dream” turned into an unexpected nightmare, as reported by 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 South American nationals to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A country with which the Trump administration has entered into an agreement to welcome irregular migrants, like Ghana, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Eswatini.
Despite being a victim of extortion in Colombia, Rodelo was supposed to benefit from protection under the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT), an international legal instrument that prohibits expelling a person to a country where their life or physical integrity would be at risk. This prohibition was circumvented by the American 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 hand and foot, Rodelo spent twenty-four hours on a plane, with a stopover 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”
