Two men that the Trump administration expelled to Equatorial Guinea were bound, fitted with bags over their heads, beaten and pushed down a flight of stairs, all in plain view of other US deportees, according to witnesses and human rights lawyers. The men – one from Egypt and one from Eritrea – were then taken to a prison. About 30 detainees from the US remain trapped at a hotel in the outskirts of the coastal city of Malabo after being deported from the US.
Detainees have said they believe the men were beaten for telling the press and human rights advocates about the poor conditions and violence inside the hotel, and that they are haunted by flashbacks and terrified they will be retaliated against next. Human rights advocates and experts have warned for months that conditions at the Hotel Bamy – a run-down establishment that has served as a detention center for US deportees – are dangerous. The US has sent at least 66 people from different African countries, Cuba and Brazil to Equatorial Guinea, which has received $7.5m as part of a deal to cooperate with the US deportation program.
The Trump administration has pursued dozens of similar deals with countries to take in immigrants that the US cannot deport directly to their home countries, where judges have deemed they would face torture or persecution. In the past, the US government allowed those people to live and work in the US indefinitely. The Trump administration, however, has sought instead to expel them to third countries where they have no ties, do not speak the local language and have no legal status – trapping them in limbo.
Advocates have been especially concerned for deportees sent to Equatorial Guinea, where the authoritarian government is notorious for human rights abuses, including torture, according to the US state department. Detainees held at Hotel Bamy have told the Guardian that armed guards keep watch over them 24/7, and that they have not been provided any medical care or even fresh clothes since arriving there. One of the detainees, who has a severe stomach hernia that requires visits to the hospital to drain his stomach due excessive fluid build-up, said he has been unable to see a doctor since arriving at Hotel Bamy.
Other detainees have managed to obtain medication for HIV, diabetes and other conditions via human rights lawyers, but remain fearful that access to medications will be arbitrarily cut off. The two men who were tortured – Ahmed Soliman, 31, of Egypt, and Samson Birhane, 47, of Eritrea – have since been transferred to a prison in Malabo. Multiple witnesses recounted that the police officers shouted, “Where is the phone?
Where is the phone!” as they beat the men, who had initially been accused of breaking a mirror at the hotel before they were pulled aside and arrested. The beating, which occurred on 11 September, followed the release of a video first reported by showing conditions at the hotel and the violent behavior of the guards. The detainees had been using cellphones to communicate with lawyers and the media about the conditions they were facing.
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