EXCLUSIVE: ICE expels three more third-country ‘deportees’ to Equatorial Guinea
Third-country removals to Cameroon and Ghana may have also occurred on the same ICE flight.
Equatorial Guinea took three more third-country nationals from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of their arrival, who asked to remain anonymous for their safety.
The three people – two Cameroonian women and one Egyptian man – arrived at Malabo International Airport on the afternoon of April 29 via an ICE flight operated by Omni Air International. They had been shackled at the wrists and ankles attached to a chain around their waists for at least 24 hours. Their status after arrival was unclear, but previous groups of third-country nationals sent there were detained at a nearby hotel.
The Omni ICE flight also made stops in Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon, according to public flight data. Ghana and Cameroon also have agreements with the US to take third-country nationals – migrants with no ties to the country to which they are being expelled.
MORE: Tracking All of Trump's Known Third-Country Removals
Ghana has previously accepted at least 61 third-country nationals via four ICE flights last fall. ICE flights have landed in Ghana seven times since then, but human-rights groups have not been able to determine if these flights held third-country nationals, and neither the US nor Ghanaian governments have confirmed or denied it.
Cameroon has accepted at least 17 third-country nationals via ICE flights on Jan. 15 and Feb. 16.
ICE has previously sent 29 third-country nationals to Equatorial Guinea via ICE flights arriving on Nov. 24 and Jan. 22, and are from Angola, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, and Mauritania. Both groups were detained at a hotel and pressured to return to their home countries. As of March, 11 remained in Equatorial Guinea, but only two had been able to apply for asylum there, according to human rights attorney Meredyth Yoon speaking to the Associated Press.
One 27-year-old man, Diadie Camara, was forced back to Mauritania via Morocco, he told Reuters. Camara had escaped race-based inherited slavery, still a common practice in Mauritania, and was in hiding from the family that had enslaved him.
All of the 29 people had been granted protection from removal to their home countries by US courts. Sending people to a third country knowing they will likely be sent to back to a dangerous home country is called chain refoulement. Chain refoulement "violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act, Constitutional due process protections, and international treaty obligations codified in U.S. law including the prohibition on refoulement" and is being challenged in federal court, according to the Third Country Deportation Watch website maintained by Refugees International and Human Rights First.
Equatorial Guinea is a corrupt and authoritarian state under the control of Teodoro Nguema Obiang and his eponymous "playboy prince" son since 1979, which is propped up by oil wealth funneled to and through multinational corporations. It received a $7.5 million payment from State Dept. funds meant for refugees in exchange for taking the migrants, according to report from Senate Democrats.
Most of the known third-country nationals sent to Ghana were detained for days or weeks and then forcibly removed to their home countries. Others were expelled to Togo without identification, making them effectively stateless. The legality of the agreement with the US is being challenged in Ghanian court.
The 17 third-country nationals previously sent to Cameroon were detained at a government compound and pressured to return to their home countries. Attorneys and journalists who attempted to visit them in February were briefly arrested, according to the New York Times.
ICE and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. This story will be updated if they do.
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