Lawyers Challenge U.S.-Equatorial Guinea Deportation Agreement at African Human Rights Commission

U.S. President Donald Trump. The agreement allows the United States to deport individuals who cannot safely be returned to their home countries.

The complaint was brought on behalf of 14 deportees, some of whom remain held in Equatorial Guinea under conditions described as arbitrary and indefinite detention. Six of the 14 had already been forcibly repatriated from Equatorial Guinea in the week before the filing, despite expressing fear of persecution or torture.

Three of those six were sent back after their home countries refused to accept them; lawyers said they had lost contact with the other three.

The groups filing the complaint are Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Global Strategic Litigation Council, EG Justice, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, and the Pan African Lawyers Union. The complaint asks the commission to suspend further repatriations and guarantee that deportees have access to lawyers.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, based in The Gambia, assesses compliance with the African Charter.

It could hear the case or refer it to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, based in Tanzania. About 32 people are thought to have been deported to Equatorial Guinea since last year, according to AFP, though the total is unknown.

U.S. State Department 2024 human rights report cited credible reports of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment in Equatorial Guinea. The Trump administration has defended third-country deportations as lawful and part of a strategy to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security.