Deportees who refused to exit a US flight in Liberia are sent to Equatorial Guinea

Deportees who refused to exit a US flight in Liberia are sent to Equatorial Guinea 1 of 2 | A plane carrying the deportees from the United States arrives at the Roberts International Airport outside of Monrovia, Liberia, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Wiaplah) 2 of 2 | A view of Bamy Hotel, where migrants are held, is seen in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on April 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Monika Pronczuk, File) By MARK BANCHEREAU Updated 5:30 PM MESZ, August 24, 2026 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Dakar, Senegal (AP) — Six people who were deported by the United States to Liberia last week resisted getting off the plane and instead were sent to Equatorial Guinea, another ‌African nation that signed a third-country deportation agreement with the Trump administration, a person on the plane and a lawyer in contact with the six said Monday. Under a series of often secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to two dozen countries that aren’t their own as it pushes ahead with its Immigration crackdown, advocates say. Immigration lawyers say the practice is being used as a legal loophole to indirectly return some asylum seekers to countries they fled. The group who refused to get off the plane in Liberia on Thursday include four Cuban men, a Brazilian man and a Cameroonian woman, the person and lawyer said. A Honduran deportee aboard the flight said the group refused to disembark, saying Liberia was “not their country” and that they would face danger there. They were then separated from the others, he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. He said the other passengers got off in Liberia because they feared officers would force them. US has sent deportees to many African countries, the latest one being Liberia. Here’s why 2 MIN READ US carries out its first deportations under pact for Liberia to accept 1,200 non-Liberians 5 MIN READ 81 Liberia agrees to take 1,200 third-country deportees from the US 5 MIN READ 81 Meredyth Yoon, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, said the deportees who resisted leaving the plane in Liberia were told they would be returned to the United States but instead were flown to Malabo city in Equatorial Guinea. “It was a really heartbreaking and chaotic scene when they arrived in Malabo on Thursday,” Yoon said. Some arrived in chains and in extreme distress, she said, including the Cameroonian woman and one of the Cuban men, who Yoon said has a large abdominal growth and uses a colostomy bag that must be drained regularly. There is no medical staff at the hotel in Equatorial Guinea where the six are being held, alongside around 40 other deported migrants, she added. Conditions at the hotel have worsened in recent months, Yoon said, with food sometimes withheld and guards accused of threatening, beating and choking some of the migrants. Equatorial Guinea’s government did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. Under an opaque $7.5 million deal with the Trump administration, Equatorial Guinea’s all-powerful president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has turned the hotel owned by his family into a prison for asylum seekers deported from the U.S. MARK BANCHEREAU Banchereau covers 22 countries across West and Central Africa for The Associated Press. He is based in Dakar, Senegal. twitter mailto