politics
UN Experts Call on Equatorial Guinea to Stop Accepting US Deportees
Human rights experts at the United Nations issued a public appeal to Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday to stop plans to return US deportees to countries where they face persecution. The statement, cosigned by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, follows reports that nine deportees were issued temporary travel documents for imminent expulsion.
May 14, 7:00 AM·3m read1 source
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Human rights experts at the United Nations issued a public appeal to Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday urging it to halt plans to return US deportees. The UN statement was cosigned by a representative of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. 5m to take in third-country nationals as part of deals with at least 25 countries including Panama, Costa Rica, Eswatini and Cameroon.
A Supreme Court ruling last summer cleared the way for the US government to send deportees to South Sudan. The Trump administration has made similar arrangements with nations that include El Salvador, which agreed to incarcerate US deportees, resulting in more than 250 Venezuelan nationals being held in a Salvadoran megaprison for four months last year.
US security officials in Equatorial Guinea presented nine US deportees with salvo-conductos, or temporary travel documents, and told them they would be deported imminently to their home countries.
On Saturday, officials told a woman using the pseudonym Esther and at least eight others that they would be expelled. Lawyers are advocating for at least 28 people sent to Equatorial Guinea who had been granted protections under US immigration laws or the Convention Against Torture.
Esther landed in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, weeks ago after US officials declined to tell her her destination until she boarded the flight.
She had been arrested by ICE during a routine check-in appointment, denied access to her lawyer, moved to Louisiana, shackled, and placed on a plane to Equatorial Guinea. She spent 14 months at a US immigration detention center before being granted withholding of removal. Esther has been detained in a hotel in Malabo under conditions she described as not unlike a prison.
