Migrants who resisted deportation to Liberia under Trump deal sent to Equatorial Guinea, sources say
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Five people are said to have resisted getting off the deportation plane when it landed in Liberia on Aug 20, and were instead transported to Equatorial Guinea.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Five migrants resisting deportation to Liberia were instead sent to Equatorial Guinea, highlighting issues in the US third-country deportation plan.
- Liberia agreed to receive 20 deportees, but only 15 disembarked; the others refused and were redirected to Equatorial Guinea.
- Human rights groups condemn the deportation deals, citing poor conditions and lack of legal aid for migrants held in Equatorial Guinea.
AI generated
DAKAR - Five people who the US attempted to deport to Liberia this week resisted getting off the plane and were instead transported to Equatorial Guinea, another African country to which the Trump administration is removing migrants it cannot legally send home, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The incident represents an early snag in Washington’s plan to send up to 1,200 so-called third-country deportees to Liberia, one of the largest such deals it has struck in Africa despite criticism from immigrants’ rights advocates.
Third-country deportees have, in most cases, obtained legal protection against repatriation after US immigration judges ruled they risked torture or other abuses in their home countries.
Liberia announced on Aug 18 that it had agreed to receive deportees and that the first group of 20 would arrive on Aug 20. But a Liberian official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters on Aug 21 that only 15 deportees disembarked.
At least five others - three Cuban men, one Brazilian man and one Cameroonian woman - refused to get off the plane in Liberia, according to three sources familiar with the incident, one of whom was a Honduran deportee on the flight.
Authorities then told them they would be flown to the US, but the plane instead headed to Malabo, in Equatorial Guinea, where the five were forced to disembark against their will, two of the sources said.
Liberia’s information ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Aug 21.
The five deportees are now being held with more than 30 other migrants who the Trump administration had previously sent to Equatorial Guinea under a deal that, like others in Africa, has been denounced by human rights groups and advocates who say many of the deportees are ultimately repatriated.
The State Department on Aug 21 said it remained “unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security”.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said all the migrants “were deported to a safe third country”, adding, “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period”.
40 deportees held in Equatorial Guinea, sources say
The plane carrying the deportees arrived in Monrovia at 12.45pm on Aug 20 after taking off from Louisiana and stopping in Dakar, Senegal, according to the ICE Flight Monitor managed by Human Rights First.
It then departed for Malabo arriving at 8.50pm, according to the ICE Flight Monitor.
There are now 40 deportees detained at a decommissioned hotel in Malabo, according to Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian migrant who arrived there four months ago.
Conditions at the hotel are grim, characterised by “inadequate medical care”, “severe psychological distress” and denial of legal assistance, according to a statement published in July by five rights groups, including Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta and EG Justice.
“The Trump Administration is using these deportation agreements to shuffle people around to different countries like objects,” said Meredyth Yoon, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta.
Equatorial Guinea’s government did not respond to a request for comment on Aug 21. REUTERS