United Nations human rights experts have publicly urged Equatorial Guinea to halt plans to return people deported from the United States to their countries of origin, warning they face political violence, torture and even death. The appeal, co-signed by a representative of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, warns that expulsions to places where people could be persecuted would violate the international prohibition on refoulement.
“States must ensure that no one is returned, directly or indirectly, to a situation where their life, freedom or physical or mental integrity would be in danger,” the experts said, expressing alarm at reports that US deportees sent to Malabo were being processed for onward removal.
The moves come as part of a broader pattern of “third‑country” deportations brokered under the US administration’s drive to increase removals. US authorities gave Equatorial Guinea $7.5 million to accept non‑citizen deportees, one of dozens of arrangements with at least 25 countries, according to congressional reporting. In several cases, deported people say they were issued temporary travel documents and told they would soon be sent on to their homelands without clear explanation or legal safeguards.
Human rights organizations and lawyers say the practice amounts to outsourcing cruelty. “Equatorial Guinea should never be treated as a safe country for migrants or asylum seekers. This is a highly repressive authoritarian state,” said Tutu Alicante of Equatorial Guinea Justice. Advocates say many transferred people have no legal status there, no family networks and effectively no protection.
The UN plea followed detailed accounts from people who were deported from the US and placed in hotels under guard in Malabo. One woman, identified only by the pseudonym Esther to protect her safety, described being detained in a hotel room with armed guards, deprived initially of basic items such as soap, toothbrushes and fresh clothes, and denied timely access to medication after becoming ill. She said she had been granted “withholding of removal” by a US immigration judge — a status meant to prevent return to a country where she would likely face persecution — yet was arrested during a routine check‑in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, denied access to her lawyer, moved between facilities in the US, shackled and flown to Equatorial Guinea without advance notice of the destination.
Esther says she fled her home country in 2024 after arrest, torture and the disappearance of her father. She told advocates she fears being sent back to the authorities who abused her. “I know what awaits me if they send me where they want to send me. I will be locked up, I will be in jail,” she said.
A coalition of legal and human rights groups representing at least 28 people sent to Equatorial Guinea says many had received protections under US immigration law or under the Convention Against Torture, having demonstrated before judges that they faced a real risk of severe harm if returned. Nonetheless, lawyers report several have already been refouled from Equatorial Guinea, including a man persecuted for his sexual orientation who is now in hiding.
These kinds of secondary and tertiary expulsions have become more common, advocates say. Agreements with countries such as Panama, Costa Rica, Eswatini and Cameroon have reportedly permitted the US to transfer third‑country nationals onward. In some instances foreign governments have detained people — for example, more than 250 Venezuelan nationals were held in a Salvadoran prison for months after being transferred from the US — and in others migrants are kept in hotels pending onward removal.
The US Department of Homeland Security said it is “utilizing all lawful options to carry out” deportation operations but did not answer detailed questions about why some deportees were not informed of their destinations before departure or about protections in third countries. A recent US Supreme Court ruling also cleared the government to send deportees to countries with troubling rights records, such as South Sudan, raising further concern among advocates.
Human rights lawyers and groups including the Global Strategic Litigation Council are mounting legal challenges and trying to help those already expelled to find safety. “These agreements are causing immense human suffering and flagrantly violating international law. They must end,” said Bella Mosselmans of the council.
The UN experts and African Commission called on Equatorial Guinea and the United States to uphold international obligations, ensure access to legal representation and stop transfers that expose people to persecution. For now, those detained in Malabo report living in fear. Esther says she survives by calling family and trying not to think about the future; her mother, she says, fears she may never see her alive again.