Men from Cuba and other countries describe being deported by the U.S. to a dangerous African nation: "We cannot leave"
The U.S. government has deported several immigrants to the Central African Republic, a nation currently experiencing severe political instability and conflict. Deportees report being stranded without documentation in a country they are unfamiliar with, raising concerns about human rights and deportation policies.
Why it matters
This policy raises ethical and legal questions regarding the safety of deportees and the criteria used by the U.S. to select third-party countries for deportation.
Last year, Cuban immigrant Yasmany Moreno de Armas was working and living in Florida. He's now in the Central African Republic, after the Trump administration sent him and dozens of deportees to the deeply impoverished and conflict-ridden nation.The 31-year-old said he only learned the U.S. government was deporting him to Africa after he arrived there in late July, alongside detainees from countries across the globe, including Ecuador, Honduras, Serbia, Russia and Vietnam."We cannot leave, we don't have documents and we're suffering and missing our families, in a continent we don't know," Moreno de Armas told CBS News in Spanish over a video call from inside a building in Bangui, the country's capital, where the deportees have been living.Asked if he had ever heard of the Central African Republic prior to his deportation, he said "never."The Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world.
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