Secretive US Deportation Deal Strands Migrants in Equatorial Guinea
Accounts are emerging from individuals deported from the United States to the African petrostate of Equatorial Guinea through a multi-million-dollar third-country arrangement established during the Trump administration. These deportees now find themselves trapped in detention with dwindling hope for protection or safe resettlement.
Judge's Protection Overruled by Secret Agreement
When a U.S. immigration judge informed a 28-year-old refugee from East Africa that he was free to leave detention in California after thirteen months, the man felt overwhelming relief. Although his asylum request had been denied, the judge ruled he could not be deported to his home country due to credible threats to his safety.
"He told me: 'Welcome to the U.S.,'" the refugee recounted to The Associated Press, which reviewed his legal documentation. "You are now protected by U.S. law, so you can leave the center, work and stay in this country."
Instead of release, he was later handcuffed and placed on a flight to Equatorial Guinea—an authoritarian West African nation that signed a covert agreement with the Trump administration and has since become a transit hub for deported migrants. The country holds him and others in detention facilities and lacks any formal asylum policy.
The refugee requested anonymity, fearing repercussions, and explained he fled his homeland after enduring beatings, persecution, and imprisonment due to his ethnicity. He is among twenty-nine people deported to Equatorial Guinea, which Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has labeled "one of the most corrupt governments in the world."
Legal Loophole Exploits Third-Country Deportations
At least seven African nations have entered into agreements with the United States to facilitate deportations of third-country nationals. Legal experts describe these arrangements as effectively creating a legal loophole for the U.S. government. Most deportees had received legal protection from U.S. judges that shielded them from being returned to their home countries, according to their attorneys.
In a telephone interview, the 28-year-old refugee stated that authorities in Equatorial Guinea are pressuring him to return home, despite his lodged asylum application there. "They told us there is no any asylum or any protection in this country for us," he said. "So the best option is to leave the country as soon as possible."
However, returning to a nation ravaged by ethnic conflict remains "not an option" for him. Meredyth Yoon, litigation director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, who has assisted deportees to Equatorial Guinea, verified significant portions of his account.
"The U.S. is deporting people to third countries to circumvent laws that forbid sending a person to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened," Yoon asserted. "Once deported, these individuals face impossible alternatives: indefinite detention without access to counsel, or forced deportation to the very countries they fled from."
Traumatic Journey to Unknown Destination
The twenty-nine individuals deported to Equatorial Guinea originated from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mauritania, Angola, Congo, Chad, Georgia, Ghana, and Nigeria, according to their visiting lawyer, who requested anonymity given the country's human rights record. He reported that authorities prohibited him from meeting with most detainees.
The 28-year-old refugee described being deported in January. Prior to that, he claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pressured him to sign a document indicating he wished to return to his country voluntarily. He recalled their surprise at his literacy, quoting one agent as saying: "I never knew Black people could read and write."
Upon refusal, he was transferred to Arizona, where he spent five months in a windowless room with several others. Hygiene conditions were poor, and obtaining medical attention proved "very difficult." "One guy in my room became crazy and started shouting and hitting himself because he wanted to go home," he recounted.
An immigration judge had denied his asylum claim but granted him protection under U.S. law and the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prohibits his return home but permits removal to a third country deemed safe. "All the people told me that we are going back to Africa," he remembered. "I needed to speak with my lawyer, but these ICE officers started using force, they started beating me."
After transfers through California, Texas, and Louisiana, he was handcuffed and driven to an airport during the night. The charter flight, operated by Omni Air International, was filled with similar deportees. Only upon landing did they discover their destination: Equatorial Guinea.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, when questioned about his case, stated that ICE officers "did NOT beat, coerce, or use racial slurs" against him, adding that he was "an illegal alien" who "was processed as an expedited removal and was removed to Equatorial Guinea." The spokesperson emphasized: "All of these illegal aliens deported to Equatorial Guinea received due process and had a final order of removal."
Detention Conditions and Forced Returns
The 28-year-old and other deportees are detained in Malabo, the former capital, in what he described as "an old closed hotel and there are no other customers." "Most of us were sick because of the food. I was hospitalized for two days. There is also malaria here, two guys were hospitalized with that," he reported.
Yoon confirmed that seventeen detainees have been returned to their home countries after being informed no other options exist, given Equatorial Guinea's absence of an asylum policy. "Everyone who I've talked to since they left is not in a good situation," she said. "Many of them are in hiding."
One man returned to Mauritania told AP he requested asylum from the prime minister's office, according to documents reviewed. The visiting lawyer forwarded a copy to the United Nations refugee agency. Nevertheless, on Christmas Day, Equatorial Guinea authorities handcuffed him and placed him on a plane.
"He alerted authorities to the fact that he had applied for asylum, and we contacted the U.S. Embassy in Malabo about his case but didn't receive a response," Yoon explained.
UNHCR declined to comment on individual cases. Larissa Schlotterbeck, its head of external engagement in the region, noted that Equatorial Guinea is developing an asylum system, with UNHCR assisting in identifying individuals needing protection during the interim.
Opaque Financial Agreements with African Nations
The Trump administration allocated at least $40 million to deport approximately 300 migrants to countries other than their own, according to a February report by Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Other African nations known to have signed agreements include South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Cameroon.
Equatorial Guinea received $7.5 million, Senator Shaheen has disclosed. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio obtained by AP, Shaheen expressed concern over this "highly unusual payment," noting it exceeded U.S. foreign assistance to Equatorial Guinea over the preceding eight years.
Last year, the U.S. State Department issued a temporary sanctions waiver permitting Teodorin Obiang, son of Equatorial Guinea's president and the country's vice president, to visit the United States. Obiang met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
Neither the U.S. State Department nor Equatorial Guinea authorities responded to requests for comment. The 28-year-old asylum-seeker remains in limbo, describing this as the worst phase of his ordeal. "Before, we were immigrants with hope," he reflected. "But here, there is no more hope."
