RIGHTS groups blasted the Trump administration on Wednesday over the use of third country deportations to intimidate migrants and asylum-seekers.

This comes as 15 South American migrants and asylum-seekers recently deported from the United States to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) complain they are being pressured into returning to their countries of origin, despite concerns for their safety.

According to the Reuters news agency, women from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador say that since their deportations to the DRC last week, they have been offered no credible options other than to return to the countries from which they had fled.

A Colombian woman, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, said the group felt “pressured to agree to go back to our country, regardless of the risks.”

Since returning to the presidency for a second term, US President Donald Trump has heavily restricted immigration to the US and has expelled immigrants already in the country, many of them with legal status to remain.

Some of the 15 South Americans deported to the DRC say they had sought asylum in the US after fleeing persecution in their home countries.

The AFP news agency reported recently that a Colombian woman named Gabriela only learned that she was being sent to the DRC a day before last week’s flight. During a 27-hour trip, the hands and feet of the deportees were shackled.

She told AFP: “I didn’t want to go to Congo. I’m scared; I don’t know the language.”

Immigration advocates have said that third country deportations are an effort to intimidate migrants and asylum-seekers into agreeing to leave the US.

“The goal is clear: put people in a place so unfamiliar that they give up and agree to return home, despite the immense risk they face there,” said Alma David, a US-based lawyer representing one of the asylum-seekers in the DRC.