US-deported asylum seekers held in Equatorial Guinea hotel
Asylum seekers deported from the United States are being held against their will in a hotel in Equatorial Guinea under an opaque deal between the two governments, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Under a reported $7.5 million arrangement with the US administration, Equatorial Guinea's long-time president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has turned a family-owned hotel on the island of Bioko into a place of confinement. At least 32 people have been held at the Bamy Hotel since late last year, facing pressure to return to their home countries.
The detainees included men and women from Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mauritania. They have not faced physical abuse, the report said, but described intense psychological pressure as they confronted the prospect of being sent back to countries they fear.
Equatorial Guinea is one of Africa's most tightly controlled states, making independent reporting difficult. The AP said it travelled to Bioko as the only international news organisation to visit the hotel.
The case is part of a broader US policy of deporting migrants to third countries willing to accept them, a practice that has drawn criticism from rights groups who warn it can leave vulnerable people stranded in unsafe or repressive conditions far from home.
