Six people deported by the United States were sent to Equatorial Guinea last week after they refused to exit a plane that had landed in Liberia, according to a person on the flight and a lawyer representing the group. The incident, which occurred on Thursday, August 20, 2026, saw the deportees diverted to Malabo city in Equatorial Guinea, another African nation with a third-country deportation agreement signed with the Trump administration.
The group included four Cuban men, a Brazilian man, and a Cameroonian woman. A Honduran deportee, who was also aboard the flight and spoke anonymously due to fear of reprisals, stated that the six refused to disembark in Liberia, explaining that it was “not their country” and they would “face danger there.” He added that other passengers on the flight got off in Liberia because they feared officers would force them.
Meredyth Yoon, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, confirmed that the deportees who resisted leaving the plane in Liberia were initially told they would be returned to the United States. Instead, they were flown to Malabo. Yoon described their arrival in Malabo on Thursday as “a really heartbreaking and chaotic scene.”
Some of the deportees arrived in chains and were in extreme distress, Yoon noted. This included the Cameroonian woman and one of the Cuban men, who Yoon said has a large abdominal growth and uses a colostomy bag that requires regular draining.
The six are now being held at the Bamy Hotel in Equatorial Guinea, alongside approximately 40 other deported migrants. Yoon reported that there is no medical staff available at the hotel. Conditions at the facility have reportedly worsened in recent months, with accusations that food is sometimes withheld and guards have threatened, beaten, and choked some of the migrants.
Advocates and immigration lawyers criticize the Trump administration's practice of deporting thousands of people to two dozen countries that are not their own, often under secret agreements, as part of its immigration crackdown. Lawyers argue that this practice is used as a legal loophole to indirectly return some asylum seekers to countries they had fled.
Equatorial Guinea’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the situation.
