US dumps foreign deportees in dangerous African war zone

Imagine if you are an immigrant to the United States of America chasing the American Dream.

Then one day you are arrested and deported because of your immigration status after creating a life in the States. To top it off, the place you are deported to is in the middle of Africa.

This sounds like a nightmare only Hollywood could write. Unfortunately, it happened to two men, one Cuban and one Eritrean, living in the US.

Deported to one of the poorest countries

Yasmany Moreno de Armas’ life in Florida was suddenly upended when federal agents arrested him last year. Just months later, the 31-year-old man born in Cuba was being deported by the United States government. But it was not until he landed that he found out he was being sent to the Central African Republic, a country he had not visited before and has no affiliation with.

“We cannot leave, we don’t have documents and we’re suffering and missing our families, on a continent we don’t know,” Moreno de Armas told CBS News. When asked if he had ever heard of the country before arriving, he said, “Never.”

Moreno de Armas is just the latest victim caught in the expanded crackdown on illegal immigrants in America.

Deported to a foreign place

The Central African Republic is deeply impoverished and plagued by armed conflict. The US State Department even warns American citizens not to travel there due to the safety risks it entails. Yet Washington has made a deal with this dangerous foreign government to accept deportees who cannot be sent back to their home countries.

This also happened to Zena Gebrgzabher, a 39-year-old truck driver from Maryland. Gebrgzabher fled Eritrea years ago after military unrest and won legal protection in the US against being returned to his homeland.

His wife and five-year-old son are American citizens. Gebrgzabher was arrested during a routine check-in with immigration officers and shipped abroad without warning.

“I miss my family,” Gebrgzabher said in a video interview, adding that his young son asks his wife every day, “(Where) is my daddy?”

No coming back

Neither man has a criminal record beyond minor traffic violations. Still, because their home countries limit deportations or present severe personal danger to citizens who have fled, US officials used third-country agreements to send them away.

Both men are now stuck in a foreign place without legal status, any knowledge of the language, or money. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the story.

Meanwhile, the two men are currently stuck inside a building in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic.

This article is made and published by Daniel Wolfram, who may have used AI in the preparation