When a US immigration judge told a 28-year-old East African refugee that he was free to leave detention in California after 13 months, he was thrilled. Although his asylum application was rejected, the judge ruled that he could not be deported to his home country because it would put him in danger.
“He told me: Welcome to the United States,” the refugee told The Associated Press, which reviewed his legal documents. “You are now protected under American law, so you can leave the center, work and stay in this country.”
But he was never released and instead was later handcuffed and put on a flight to Equatorial Guinea, an authoritarian petrostate in West Africa that had signed a secret deal with the Trump administration and became a transit center for deported migrants. It detains him and others, and has no asylum policy.
He asked not to reveal his identity for fear of repercussions, saying that he fled his country after being beaten, persecuted, and imprisoned because of his ethnic affiliation.
He is among 29 people deported to Equatorial Guinea, which the Democratic leader of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, called “one of the most corrupt governments in the world.”
The first American pope, Leo XIV, who has criticized the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants as “very disrespectful,” is scheduled to visit Equatorial Guinea in April.
At least seven African countries have signed agreements with the United States to facilitate deportations of third-country nationals, which legal experts said is in effect a legal loophole for the United States. Their lawyers said that most of the deportees received legal protection from American judges that protected them from being returned to their countries of origin.
The AP was previously interviewed A gay asylum seeker from Morocco
In a phone interview, the 28-year-old refugee said authorities in Equatorial Guinea were pressuring him to return to his homeland even though he had applied for asylum there, which was seen by The Associated Press.
“They told us that there is no asylum or protection for us in this country,” he said. “So the best option is to leave the country as soon as possible.”
But he said returning to a country torn by ethnic strife “is not an option.”
The United States deports people to third countries “to circumvent laws that prohibit sending someone to a country where their life or freedom is threatened,” said Meredith Yuen, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, which helped deportees to Equatorial Guinea.
I verified large parts of the 28-year-old asylum seeker’s account.
“Once deported, these individuals face impossible alternatives: indefinite detention without access to a lawyer, or forced deportation to the same countries they fled,” she said.
The 29 people deported to Equatorial Guinea were from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mauritania, Angola, Congo, Chad, Georgia, Ghana and Nigeria, according to their visiting lawyer, who requested anonymity given the country’s human rights record. He said that the authorities did not allow him to see most of them.
The 28-year-old refugee said he was deported in January. He added that immigration and customs officials had previously pressured him to sign a document saying that he wanted to return to his country voluntarily. He said they were surprised that he could read them, and one of them was quoted as saying: “I never knew black people could read and write.”
وعندما رفض، قال إنه نُقل إلى أريزونا، حيث أمضى خمسة أشهر في غرفة بلا نوافذ مع عدة أشخاص آخرين. Sanitary conditions in the facility were poor, and obtaining medical care was “extremely difficult.”
“One of the men in my room went crazy and started screaming and hitting himself because he wanted to go home,” he said.
An immigration judge rejected his asylum request, but granted him protection under US law and the UN Convention against Torture, which prohibits his return to his home country but allows him to be deported to a third country deemed safe.
“All the people told me we were going back to Africa,” he recalls. “I needed to talk to my attorney, but the ICE officers started using force, and they started hitting me.”
After being transported to California, Texas and Louisiana, he was handcuffed and taken to the airport in the middle of the night.
He said the plane belonged to Omni Air International, a charter airline, and was full of people like him.
When they landed, it was discovered that they were in Equatorial Guinea.
When asked about his condition, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE officers “did not beat, coerce, or use racial slurs” against him, adding that he was an “illegal alien” and “was treated as expedited deportation and deported to Equatorial Guinea.”
“All of these illegal aliens deported to Equatorial Guinea were given due process and obtained a final order of deportation,” they said.
The 28-year-old and other deportees are being held in Malabo, the former capital.
“It is an old hotel that is closed and there are no other customers,” he said. “Most of us got sick from the food. I was hospitalized for two days. There is also malaria here, and two men were hospitalized because of it.”
Yoon said 17 detainees were returned to their countries of origin after being told there was no other option, with no asylum policy in Equatorial Guinea.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to since they left is not doing well,” she said. “A lot of them are in hiding.”
A man sent back to Mauritania told the AP that he sought asylum anyway from the prime minister’s office, according to documents seen by the AP. The visiting lawyer said he sent a copy to the United Nations refugee agency.
But on Christmas Day, Equatorial Guinean authorities handcuffed him and put him on a plane.
“He informed (the authorities) of the fact that he had applied for asylum, and we contacted the US embassy in Malabo about his case but we did not receive a response,” Yoon said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it could not comment on individual cases. Equatorial Guinea is working to establish an asylum system and is helping UNHCR identify people who may need protection until then, said Larissa Schlotterbeck, head of external engagement in the region.
The Trump administration has spent at least $40 million to deport about 300 immigrants to countries other than their own, according to a February report by Democratic staffers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. the It is known that signing deals are South SudanRwanda, Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and Cameroon.
Equatorial Guinea received $7.5 million
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, obtained by The Associated Press, Shaheen said the “highly unusual payment” raised concerns about the use of taxpayer money, and noted that it exceeded U.S. foreign aid to Equatorial Guinea over the past eight years.
Last year, the US State Department issued a temporary sanctions waiver to allow Teodorin Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president and the country’s vice president, to visit the United States. Obiang met with the US Deputy Secretary of State
The US State Department and Equatorial Guinean authorities did not respond to requests for comment.
The 28-year-old asylum seeker remains in limbo. He described this as the worst part of his ordeal.
“Before, we were hopeful migrants,” he said, “but here, there is no hope anymore.”