Aisha Tukur
For the growing number of African asylum seekers and economic migrants in the US, the upcoming presidential election could reshape their entire future.
“We deserve safety,” says Dr Yves Kaduli, a 38-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo who lives in the US.
“I have a dream that I will defend those that are persecuted,” he adds in a BBC interview.
Dr Kaduli says that in 2014, he fled eastern DR Congo – which has been wracked by conflict for almost three decades – after being kidnapped and tortured.
He had been working as a doctor at Cifunzi Hospital in Kalonge town and saw the effects of the conflict up-close.
“Women were raped. I saw it. I felt it in my body,”
Dr Kaduli says that horrified at the civilian casualties, he and many of his colleagues, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Denis Mukwege, participated in protests against the killings and rapes by armed groups, criticising then-President Joseph Kabila’s government for its failure to guarantee the safety of people.
The medic says this led to him being targeted by unknown men.
“They came, they took me and another colleague by force during our night shift,” Dr Kaduli recalls, adding that they were then taken to a makeshift camp in a nearby forest where they were beaten, tortured and threatened with death.
Dr Kaduli says that after being held for a day he managed to escape and decided he had to get out.
Leaving his mother and young son behind, Dr Kaduli says he began what would be a five-year journey, passing first through neighbouring Rwanda, then flying to Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and finally arriving at the US-Mexico border in 2019.
I remained on the border for at least a month, we were living in small tents in inhumane conditions.”
Dr Kaduli says he then succeeded in crossing into the US and was detained for 15 months, before being released.
He now lives in Virginia working as a medical technician, awaiting a decision on his asylum case.
Dr Kaduli is one of thousands of African migrants who against all odds complete the long journey to reach the US-Mexico border each year. It is a number that is rising.
But with many Americans saying immigration is a top concern in this election, and both candidates promising to crack down at the border, African asylum seekers are worried the public may turn against them.
“We see our politicians criminalise our status, demonise our community and being a president, they can decide our future,” Dr Kaduli tells the BBC.
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In 2022, around 13,000 African migrants were recorded at the US-Mexico border, according to US Customs and Border protection data. By 2023, this figure had quadrupled to 58,000.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports a sharp increase in asylum applications from West African countries such as Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea since 2022 at the same border.
New asylum applications from Senegalese nationals alone jumped from 773 in 2022, to 13,224 in 2024.
Although relatively stable, more than one third of the population in Senegal live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
