Equatorial Guinea Holds U.S. Deportees in Hotel Also Used for Suspected Ebola Case

Migrants deported from the U.S. and held in a hotel in Equatorial Guinea say authorities placed at least one suspected Ebola patient in the same building, according to lawyers and interviews with two detainees. The hotel on Bioko island, owned by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, currently houses 17 people from Angola, Mauritania, Ethiopia and other countries under a third-country deportation agreement with the Trump administration.

A man suspected of having Ebola was brought to the hotel last week by medical personnel wearing hazmat suits and placed on a floor below the detainees.

Two deportees said a doctor told them in English that the man was a suspected Ebola patient and that they should be careful. One detainee reported that a woman was also brought to the quarantine floor on Sunday and identified by medical staff as another suspected Ebola patient.

The detainees received no masks, disinfectants or other protective supplies, lawyers and detainees said. Videos reviewed by The Associated Press showed medical personnel in full protective equipment transporting patients to the hotel.

Background on the Deportation Arrangement The Trump administration has deported thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries that are not their countries of origin under a series of agreements, advocates say. Equatorial Guinea is one of at least eight African nations that have reached such arrangements with the U.S. All 17 people currently held in the hotel—four women and 13 men—received U.S. court orders that should have protected them from removal to their home countries, the lawyers said.

The lawyers filed a case this month before Africa’s top human rights body accusing Equatorial Guinea of forcing the deportees back to their home countries. The lawyers also reported receiving multiple accounts that individuals with serious medical conditions are being denied adequate medical care while in government custody.