By Robbie Corey-Boulet
DAKAR, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Police in Equatorial Guinea pulled firearms on migrants deported there from the United States, according to three witnesses and video footage shared with Reuters, intensifying concerns about the treatment and safety of people sent to the Central African nation under a U.S. deportation programme.
Deportees have complained of inadequate medical care, denial of legal assistance and “severe psychological distress” while being held at a hotel in Equatorial Guinea’s former capital, Malabo.
The altercation on Saturday began as a dispute over access to mobile phones but quickly escalated, with men wearing shirts bearing the words “National Police” pointing what appeared to be semi-automatic assault rifles at deportees inside the entrance to the hotel. One migrant appeared to be kneeling on the ground while others screamed nearby.
Reuters reviewed the footage but could not independently verify the events that preceded the confrontation.
The Trump administration has since last year struck multiple agreements with African governments to accept migrants who it cannot legally return to their home countries. Many of those deported under the so-called third-country arrangements had previously won protection from U.S. immigration judges, who found they could face torture or other abuses if repatriated.
Washington has defended the third-country deals as lawful and said deportations are carried out in accordance with U.S. immigration law. Equatorial Guinea has not publicly detailed the terms under which it is housing the deportees.
Rights groups and advocates have said the arrangements are opaque and that some deportees are ultimately returned to the countries they originally fled.
Lawyers representing some of the deportees said the confrontation underscored concerns about their safety.
“Once again, evidence demonstrates that deporting people to Equatorial Guinea is putting their lives in danger. I hope that someone will not be seriously injured or killed,” said Meredyth Yoon, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, a legal advocacy group.
The Trump administration is “utilizing all lawful options” to carry out deportations, said a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for them. This is common sense,” the spokesperson said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. government would “use all legal means to remove those with no right to remain in our country.”
The government of Equatorial Guinea did not respond to requests for comment.
‘THEY COCKED THEIR GUNS… TELLING ME TO GET ON MY KNEES’
There are currently 31 deportees being held at the hotel in Malabo, according to Yoon and two members of the group of deportees.
Last month, five people whom the U.S. attempted to deport to Liberia resisted getting off the plane and were subsequently transported to Equatorial Guinea instead.
One member of that group, a Cuban man, approached police officers at the hotel on Saturday morning to request the return of his confiscated mobile phone so that he could contact relatives and a lawyer, the two witnesses said.
The officers ignored his request, and another deportee, an Egyptian man named Ahmed Soliman, began filming the exchange on his phone.
Within 30 seconds, “I was rushed at by multiple officers, me and a few other people that were outside with us. That is when they started assaulting us, grabbing my neck, my shirt, trying to dig the phone out of my pocket,” Soliman told Reuters.
“They cocked their guns, took it off of safety, pointed their guns at me telling me to get on my knees, with my hands up… I had to remain in that position for 10-15 minutes while there was chaos going on in the hotel.”
The situation was defused when the hotel’s director arrived and “calmed everyone down”, allowing the deportees to return to their rooms, Soliman said.
A total of 53 people were deported to Equatorial Guinea under the third-country deportation deal between November 2025 and July, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, a tracker managed by Refugees International and Human Rights First.
They come from 11 African countries as well as Georgia, Jamaica, Brazil and Cuba, according to the tracker.
Three deportees told Reuters they had been encouraged to return to their home countries despite fears of torture and other abuses, and said they had not been presented with alternative options. Reuters could not independently verify the claim.
(Reporting by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Additional reporting by Edward James Carron; Editing by Ros Russell)
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