A group of six individuals—four Cuban nationals, one Brazilian, and one Cameroonian—refused to exit a deportation flight in Monrovia on 20 August as part of a third-country deportation operation. According to legal observers, ICE agents allegedly assaulted some of them and returned them to the aircraft, promising they would be taken back to the United States. Instead, several hours later, the six were transported to Equatorial Guinea and detained at a hotel facility in the capital, Malabo, where they remain held by armed guards.
The incident represents an unprecedented routing in which deportees were sent to a fourth country after refusing to disembark in a third country. Legal advocates describe the conditions at the detention facility as severely restricted, with deportees unable to leave the premises, contact family members, or access adequate food, hygiene items, or medical care. One individual allegedly required surgical intervention for a serious abdominal condition but was denied hospital treatment due to lack of documentation.
Equatorial Guinea has received nearly 60 deportees directly since November, making it the leading African destination for third-country deportations. The arrangement stems from a deal negotiated by Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice-president and son of the nation’s long-serving leader, under which the US government agreed to provide $7.5 million to the government. The deportees face severely limited options: indefinite detention or return to their countries of origin, despite some having previously received withholding of removal determinations from US immigration judges based on persecution risks.
Equatorial Guinea lacks a formal legal asylum framework, leaving deportees in what legal experts describe as legal limbo with no means to establish formal status. Nearly half of those arriving since November have already been returned to their home countries. Immigration attorneys argue the arrangement circumvents legal protections by using third-country transfers to effectively return individuals to countries where they may face danger, bypassing judicial safeguards.
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