U.S. Deports Asylum Seekers to Equatorial Guinea After Liberia Refusal

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is executing a large-scale deportation operation that has led to the first reported instance of deportees being sent to a fourth country after refusing to disembark in a third. In late August, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deported approximately 20 people to Liberia. Six individuals—including four Cubans, one Brazilian, and one Cameroonian—refused to leave the aircraft in Monrovia on August 20.

Following the refusal, agents allegedly assaulted the six individuals and promised them a return to the United States. Instead, the agents flew the group to Equatorial Guinea, where they were detained at the Bamy hotel in Malabo. These flights are part of a $7.5 million agreement secured by Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue to accept third-country deportees.

Human rights advocates report that the detainees in Malabo are held in inhumane conditions without access to medical care or legal asylum frameworks. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defended the operation as a lawful application of the law, asserting that all illegal aliens were deported to safe third countries. Critics argue the strategy creates a loophole to force asylum seekers into nations where they may face persecution.