Men describe being deported by U.S. to dangerous African nation: "We cannot leave"

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. Armed conflict, political instability and Russian mercenaries have also made it one of the most dangerous. The State Department warns Americans through a Level 4 travel advisory not to visit the country, citing the widespread insecurity there.

The landlocked nation is one of more than 30 countries the U.S. government has convinced to accept third-country deportees arrested as part of President Trump's large-scale crackdown on illegal immigration. The list includes a growing number of African countries, many of which are plagued by armed conflict, repressive governments and human rights abuses.

Eritrea native Zena Gebrgzabher, 39, is also stranded in the Central African Republic after being ejected from the U.S.

"My son. He asked like every day to my wife, '(where) is my daddy?'" he added.

Gebrgzabher's wife and their 5-year-old son, both of whom are American citizens, live in Maryland, where he said he worked as a truck driver. Like Moreno de Armas, Gebrgzabher said he was not given any notice of his deportation to the Central African Republic or allowed to challenge it.

Yrgalem Gehrehiwet called her husband's deportation unfair and inhumane. She said their son, Nathan, has been particularly affected by his father's absence, though she has refrained from telling him about Gebrgzabher's predicament.

CBS News could not find any criminal record for Moreno de Armas or Gebrgzabher, beyond traffic and immigration violations, like entering the U.S. illegally. But both men's cases do match the description of many of those targeted by the Trump administration for deportation to far-flung "third countries."

For the most part, the Trump administration has sought to use third-country deportation agreements to deport immigrants whose home countries, like Cuba, reject or limit U.S. deportations or who have won legal protections in U.S.