Defend, Educate, Inform
20 April 2026
In light of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Equatorial Guinea, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, Pan African Lawyers Union, Equatorial Guinea Justice, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Global Strategic Litigation Council, and the undersigned allied partners humbly request His Holiness’ attention to the worrying situation of individuals deported from the United States to African countries of which they are not nationals and with which they often have no ties. The Pope has visited Cameroon, a country that has received such individuals and is visiting Equatorial Guinea where others are stranded in precarious situations and unprotected.
Most of these men and women suffered the worst kinds of abuse humans can inflict upon one another, including religious persecution, gender-based violence and torture. As a result, some were granted protection by U.S. immigration judges, who ruled that they could not be deported to their countries of origin because doing so would place them at serious risk of persecution or torture. Despite the judges’ binding orders of protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported hundreds of people to so‑called “third countries” where they are subjected to pressure to be sent back precisely to the countries they are fleeing.
In the dead of night on January 21, 2026, ICE forced individuals onto a plane without any explanation of where they were going, under threat of physical harm. Their pleas for mercy were ignored. They were painfully and humiliatingly shackled and restrained throughout the flight and eventually deplaned in Equatorial Guinea. It was the second known third-country deportation flight from the U.S. to Equatorial Guinea, after the U.S. deported nine refugees there in November 2025. Some remain there today where they are being threatened with deportation to countries where they face persecution or lack adequate protection, while also being restricted from accessing legal support, denied medical care and basic hygiene supplies, and exposed to serious health conditions. Others have been forcibly returned to their countries of origin or to countries where their protection is not guaranteed. The circumstances surrounding the U.S. government’s deportation of these individuals with urgent protection needs are deeply troubling and raise serious human rights concerns.
The suffering of these individuals cannot be viewed in isolation. As widely reported by Reuters, The New York Times, and other major media outlets, the United States has in recent months dramatically expanded its use of third‑country deportations across Africa. In April 2026 the Democratic Republic of the Congo agreed to receive asylum seekers. On April 17, the U.S. deported around 15 people from Latin America there. Additional African countries such as Ghana, Eswatini, Uganda and Rwanda have also accepted individuals under similar arrangements, many of whom were subsequently forcibly returned to countries where they face persecution.
These practices circumvent humanitarian protections, expose refugees to detention and coercion, and subject individuals to refoulement, in direct contravention of international law and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The principle of non-refoulement is a bedrock principle of international law which prohibits States from sending people to places where their lives or freedom would be at risk.
The conditions under which these deportations have been carried out have also reflected a very troubling disregard for human life and safety. We call for the intercession of Pope Leo XIV to discourage African countries from being complicit in these international violations and instead to protect these individuals.
His Holiness reminded us that “every migrant is a person and, as such, has inalienable rights that must be respected in every situation.” He further observed that “not all migrants move by choice, but many are forced to flee because of violence, persecution, and conflict.” His Holiness’s recent support for the U.S. Bishops’ special message opposing mass deportations, and his consistent message of compassion toward migrants, offer hope to refugees throughout the world.
In conjunction with His Holiness’s visit to Equatorial Guinea, we humbly plead for His Holiness’s moral and pastoral intervention to encourage the fair, humane, and lawful treatment of these individuals, including meaningful access to legal protections and protections from refoulement.
Respectfully,
The undersigned African, refugee-led and global NGOs:
Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA)
949 Brusubi Layout, AU Summit Highway,
P.O. Box 1896 Banjul, The Gambia.
Tel: +220 44 10 413/4
Cell: +220 77 51 200
Email: ihrda@ihrda.org