US deportees beaten and tortured in Equatorial Guinea detention hotel, lawyers say

Ahmed Soliman, a 31-year-old from Egypt, and Samson Birhane, 47, from Eritrea, were bound, hooded, and beaten in front of dozens of witnesses on September 11th at a hotel on the outskirts of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's coastal capital. Police officers shouted "Where is the phone? Where is the phone?" as they struck the men, who were then pushed down a flight of stairs and transferred to a prison. The beating came hours after a video surfaced—shot by Soliman himself—showing armed guards pointing weapons at detainees and the broader conditions inside Hotel Bamy, a run-down facility that has become a detention center for people expelled from the United States.

The Trump administration has deported at least 66 people to Equatorial Guinea under a cooperation agreement that has paid the country $7.5 million. These deportees come from various African nations, Cuba, and Brazil—people whom US judges determined would face torture or persecution if returned to their home countries. In the past, the US allowed such individuals to remain and work in America indefinitely. The current approach is different: expel them to third countries where they have no family, no language skills, no legal status, and no way to build a life. About 30 of these deportees remain at Hotel Bamy, trapped in a country notorious for authoritarian rule and documented torture.

Soliman and Birhane had both come to the US as young men seeking safety. Soliman, a gay Egyptian, had lived in Phoenix for most of his life with a green card until a drug possession conviction cost him his status. A judge had ruled in October that he would face persecution and torture if returned to Egypt because of his sexuality. Birhane arrived as a refugee at age 13 but lost his status after a robbery conviction in high school in 1988. Despite that conviction, a judge determined he faced torture in Eritrea and allowed him to stay, checking in regularly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as required. Both men had built lives in America. Both had been deemed too vulnerable to send home. Both are now in a Malabo prison.

Detainees at Hotel Bamy say the two men were targeted for retaliation—beaten because they had documented what was happening inside the facility and shared it with lawyers and journalists. The hotel has no functioning medical care. One detainee with a severe stomach hernia requiring regular hospital drainage has not seen a doctor since arriving. Others have managed to obtain medications for HIV and diabetes only through human rights lawyers, living in fear that access will be cut off arbitrarily. Armed guards maintain 24-hour watch. No fresh clothes have been provided since arrival. In the week after Soliman and Birhane were beaten, police searched other detainees' rooms for cellphones and confiscated them. Lawyers have been barred from visiting. Authorities told the remaining 29 deportees that they may never see Soliman or Birhane again. One witness described the treatment as if the detainees were "blanks" who "don't even exist." An officer told another detainee: "You will disappear from the earth. I am the law."

The video Soliman shot before his arrest showed the reality inside the hotel. In one sequence, a Cuban man asked an officer to return his confiscated phone so he could contact relatives and a lawyer. The officer ignored him. When Soliman began filming this exchange, multiple officers rushed toward him and others nearby, pointed guns, and forced Soliman to kneel with his hands raised for 10 to 15 minutes. In another video, Soliman documented authorities forcibly sending US deportees to Ethiopia, a country where they are likely to face torture. When deportees resisted, officials gave them a choice: return to their home country or go to prison. At least 12 people have been sent back to their home countries, where they now face the persecution that US courts had said they would suffer.

In May, United Nations human rights experts issued a rare public appeal asking Equatorial Guinea to stop returning deportees to their home countries and to comply with international standards against refoulement—the expulsion of people to places where they face persecution. The African Commission later issued an urgent interim order instructing Equatorial Guinea not to deport, transfer, or relocate deportees against their will. Bella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council representing several deportees, called the situation "a human rights catastrophe" and said both the US and Equatorial Guinea "must be held accountable for the atrocities they are committing."

Lawyers have sent multiple emails to the US embassy in Equatorial Guinea documenting threats and violence against detainees. None have been answered. When asked about the violence, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that once individuals are no longer in ICE custody, the agency bears no responsibility for them, and that all deportees were sent to "a safe third country." The State Department said it uses "all legal means" to remove people without the right to remain in the country but declined to answer whether it was aware of how Equatorial Guinea was treating US deportees or whether any intervention had been attempted. The agency cited the confidentiality of diplomatic communications.

The remaining 30 deportees at Hotel Bamy live with the knowledge of what happened to Soliman and Birhane. They are haunted by flashbacks and terrified of retaliation. They have no way to contact the outside world. They have no legal status in a country that has tortured political prisoners. They cannot go home. They cannot stay in America. They are waiting to see what happens next.