A coalition of human rights organisations has filed a lawsuit before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) on behalf of 14 individuals expelled from the United States to Equatorial Guinea under a secretive bilateral transfer agreement. The clients represented in the lawsuit were among a group of about 32 individuals transferred under this agreement, none of whom have any connection to Equatorial Guinea. All of them had been granted international protection by the United States. 

The lawsuit challenges a transfer arrangement under which the United States paid Equatorial Guinea USD $7.5 million to accept individuals removed from the US. The arrangement has resulted in people being denied access to asylum procedures and arbitrarily detained. Some of them have already been forcibly removed by Equatorial Guinea to countries where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, sexual violence, imprisonment, and death. The lawsuit requests that the Commission urgently issue precautionary measures to prevent further deportations and protect applicants from irreparable harm.

The lawsuit comes after six individuals were forcibly returned in the last week to countries they had previously fled, despite expressing their fear of persecution or torture and protections previously granted by the US. It also followed an urgent appeal issued by the Commission and United Nations experts, last month, in response to threats that the individuals would be removed to their countries of origin. This is in clear violation of the principle of non-refoulement under international law, which prohibits returning individuals to places where they face a real risk of torture or other serious harm.

“This case is not about immigration policy. It is about whether governments can treat human beings as bargaining chips, transferring them through secret deals, while escaping legal and public scrutiny,” said Tutu Alicante, Executive Director of EG Justice. “Equatorial Guinea, ruled by the world’s longest ruling non hereditary ruler who today turns 84, offers no independent judiciary and no meaningful protections for refugees or asylum seekers. That is precisely what makes it “attractive” as a destination for the chain refoulement of migrants and asylum seekers whom the US seeks to remove outside the reach of its own laws.” 

All 14 individuals represented in the lawsuit were transferred to Equatorial Guinea between November 2025 and April 2026. Before their removal, all had been granted withholding of removal status by a US immigration judge under the US Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) or comparable protection under the Convention Against Torture. These protections prohibit deportation by the US to persecution or torture in their country of citizenship. The US is increasingly treating these protections as if they are a loophole that allows the US to enlist third countries to effectuate return, as has happened here.

The individuals represented in the lawsuit include:

• a former child slave turned anti-slavery advocate who fled persecution and is now living in hiding after being forcibly returned to his country of origin;
• a man who was arrested and severely beaten because of his sexual orientation, leaving him hospitalised for weeks and evicted from his home. He was forcibly returned to his country of origin and has now fled to a neighbouring country where he is hiding. 
• a woman assaulted by a high-ranking military official, whose family disappeared after she fled her country. She is still detained in Equatorial Guinea and faces imminent risk of return. 

“This is a human rights catastrophe. Many of our clients fled the worst kinds of persecution or torture imaginable on the basis of their sexuality, ethnicity and political opinion. US immigration judges granted them protection. Yet they were deported to a country they have no connection to, denied due process and detained in deplorable conditions. In a flagrant violation of international law, and despite caution from UN and African human rights Experts, Equatorial Guinea continues to deport and expose people to real, foreseeable and life-threatening danger.” said Beatrice Njeri, Africa Regional Litigator at the Global Strategic Litigation Council and co-counsel on the case. “This is part of a series of cases we are bringing to send a clear signal that States remain accountable for the consequences of the deals they strike and their failure to uphold human rights. African States must end their complicity in the US chain refoulement machine.”

The lawsuit contains allegations of severe mistreatment during detention in the US before expulsion, including degrading treatment, deception, physical assaults and coercion to board removal flights. 

The filing details how individuals were then shackled, transferred to Equatorial Guinea, denied information about where they were being taken, and not given any meaningful opportunity to challenge their removal. Some were separated from family members who remain in the US. 

Upon arrival in Equatorial Guinea, they were detained at a hotel in Malabo under constant armed guard in poor detention conditions. Individuals held at Hotel Bamy have faced serious health risks, including cases of malaria and typhoid. Medical care has been delayed or denied, and authorities in Malabo have failed to provide adequate hygiene facilities and basic necessities, including changes of clothing, toothpaste, and sanitary products. 8 of the 14 clients remain detained in Malabo in these inhuman and degrading conditions. Three others were removed in December 2025 and March 2026, two to their home countries, and one to a third country.

Of the six who were deported last week, each was returned to their country of origin – the very countries where a US judge determined they faced risk of persecution or worse. Three of these individuals were subsequently sent back to Equatorial Guinea after the authorities in their country of origin refused to admit them because they lacked valid travel documents and had not been notified of their arrival. They are now once again detained in Malabo and effectively stateless. 

“We are calling upon the African Commission to urgently urge Equatorial Guinea to immediately stop any deportation, transfer, or removal of the remaining Complainants and to release those who continue to face arbitrary detention as a result of these forced returns” said the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa. The Complainants must be granted full access to legal representations, and all the rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’s Rights must be fully protected and upheld. We hope that the Commission will reaffirm its position that no State can facilitate actions that will expose individuals to violation of their rights, including persecutions, torture or any other violation.”

This is one of several agreements that the US has entered into in the last year with states across the world. It forms part of a broader pattern of outsourcing migration enforcement and asylum obligations to third countries, placing people at risk of serious human rights violations.

“Since 2025, the US has entered into dozens of third-country deportation agreements, often under opaque and coercive circumstances. The US must immediately withdraw from these agreements and cease exporting its inhumane mass deportation policies through these exploitative and uneven deals,” said Meredyth Yoon, Litigation Director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta.

The lawsuit asks the African Commission to issue urgent precautionary measures to prevent irreparable harm to the applicants while the case is under consideration. These measures include suspending any further removals of the applicants, guaranteeing immediate access to legal counsel, ensuring that the detention conditions comply with international human rights standards, including access to healthcare, nutrition and other basic necessities, and ordering an urgent review of all transfers carried out under the bilateral agreement.

In addition, the lawsuit asks the African Commission to order Equatorial Guinea to comply fully with its regional and international human rights obligations towards the applicants, including by ceasing participation in transfer arrangements that result in people being denied access to asylum procedures, arbitrarily detained, or returned to countries where they face persecution, torture or other serious harm. The Commission can also recommend compensation for the clients for the harm they have suffered and the violation of their human rights.

‘‘States cannot evade their human rights obligations by outsourcing migration control to third countries. The prohibition of refoulement is a cornerstone of international and regional human rights protection and applies regardless of the mechanism used to transfer individuals,” said Donald Deya, CEO of the Pan African Lawyers Union. “This case presents an important opportunity for the African Commission to reaffirm that migration governance must remain firmly grounded in the principles of human dignity, access to protection, and respect for fundamental rights guaranteed under the African Charter and other applicable human rights instruments.”

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Press contacts:

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta – jwoo@advancingjustice-atlanta.org 
• Global Strategic Litigation Council – laura@global-council.org 
• Equatorial Guinea Justice – tutu@egjustice.org (+1 (615) 479-0207)
• Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa – mjallow@ihrda.org 
• Pan African Lawyers Union – mhoza@lawyersofafrica.org

Notes for editors

• The coalition bringing the lawsuit includes Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, Equatorial Guinea Justice, Global Strategic Litigation Council, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, and the Pan African Lawyers Union.
• The African Commission on Human & Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR/The African Commission) is a formal quasi-judicial organ of the African Union. It supervises compliance of states, such as Equatorial Guinea, which have agreed to the terms of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. Through the Charter, governments created a complaint mechanism that addresses human rights violations across the continent. Under Rule 100 of the ACHPR’s Rules of Procedure, the African Commission can issue Provisional Measures which should be adopted by the State to prevent irreparable harm to the Complainants/Victims, before determining whether the Complaint is admissible. 
• Additional background materials and legal documents are available on request.

About the Coalition:

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (Advancing Justice-Atlanta) is the first nonprofit legal advocacy for AANHPI and AMEMSA communities in Georgia, the Southeast, and beyond, working across borders in broad multiracial coalitions to build power in working-class, language minority and immigrant communities. In 2025, Advancing Justice-Atlanta and partners filed a lawsuit challenging U.S. third-country deportations to Ghana, where individuals subsequently were refouled, i.e., deported back to countries where a U.S. immigration judge determined they likely would be persecuted or tortured.
• The Global Strategic Litigation Council is a global coalition of over 700 NGOs, refugee leaders, lawyers, advocates, and academics working to advance the rights of displaced people through strategic litigation and coordinated legal advocacy. 
• Equatorial Guinea Justice stands with the people of Equatorial Guinea to protect their rights and dignity as human beings. 
• Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa is an award-winning pan-African non-profit organisation that promotes the effective use of the African Human Rights System to advance and protect human rights and development across the continent. Through legal advocacy, capacity building and information sharing, the organisation works to strengthen the efficacy of African regional and sub-regional human rights mechanisms and to end impunity for human rights violations in Africa.
• Pan African Lawyers Union is the premier continental association of lawyers and law societies in Africa, bringing together the continent’s legal profession to advance justice, human rights, the rule of law, and good governance. Established in 2002 and headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania, PALU works with lawyers, civil society organizations, regional institutions, and governments to strengthen legal systems and promote access to justice across Africa. Through litigation, advocacy, research, and capacity building, PALU contributes to the protection and advancement of human and peoples’ rights throughout the continent.