U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign a memorandum in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 5, 2026.Image@ REUTERS/Evan Vucci
Human rights groups have taken the Trump administration’s third-country deportation policy to Africa’s top rights body, in what advocates say marks a watershed moment in the continental pushback against Washington’s immigration crackdown.
The complaint, filed Friday with the Gambia-based African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, was brought on behalf of 14 people from various African countries who have been held or deported through Equatorial Guinea since November last year under a secretive bilateral arrangement with the United States. The case is being led by the Global Strategic Litigation Council coalition and others, and advocates describe it as the first of its kind in the region involving people who had legal protection from removal but were still sent to countries where they face persecution.
The deportees had all obtained legal protection in the U.S. against repatriation to their home countries, but were routed through Equatorial Guinea as part of a wider Trump administration strategy that critics say exploits third-country arrangements as a legal workaround. A federal court ruled in February 2026 that the policy was unlawful, holding that the Department of Homeland Security cannot deport individuals to countries not designated in their removal proceedings without providing meaningful notice and a genuine opportunity to seek protection from persecution or torture. Washington, however, has defended the deportations as lawful and says they are part of a strategy “to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security.”
Six of the 14 people covered by Friday’s complaint have already been forcibly repatriated from Equatorial Guinea within the past week despite expressing fear of persecution or torture, according to the rights groups behind the filing. Three were sent back to their home countries after those nations’ governments initially refused to accept them, while lawyers say they have lost contact with the remaining three. The other eight are still being held in Equatorial Guinea.
An Associated Press investigation earlier revealed that asylum seekers deported from the United States had been detained at the Bamy Hotel in Malabo under the secretive migration arrangement, with at least 32 people held there since November, including migrants whose lawyers say previously received protection from U.S. judges. Those detained include nationals of Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mauritania.
The complaint asks the commission to suspend further repatriations and guarantee the deportees access to legal counsel, among other provisional measures. The body, mandated to promote human rights across member states through urgent appeals and friendly settlement of disputes, could either hear the case itself or refer it to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Tanzania.
Equatorial Guinea is one of at least eight African nations that the U.S. has struck third-country deportation deals with , a list that also includes Burundi, Cabo Verde, the Central African Republic, Liberia, Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini. These agreements are frequently concluded without transparency and may be shaped by significant power imbalances, including financial incentives, development assistance and diplomatic pressure.
The financial dimension of the arrangement has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill. A report published in February by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee found that more than $32 million had been paid directly to five countries as part of third-country removal deals — including $7.5 million to Equatorial Guinea. Legislators flagged the payment as “highly unusual” given that Equatorial Guinea ranks 173rd out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s corruption index.
The government of Equatorial Guinea did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s complaint.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah