US deportees allege police abuse in Equatorial Guinea

US deportees held in a hotel in Equatorial Guinea say they face escalating police violence, intimidation and pressure to leave for their home countries.

Ahmed Soliman, 30, told AFP that masked police officers entered his hotel room two weeks ago, dragged him and about two dozen other deportees outside at gunpoint and told them to go home. He said he and four others were handcuffed and hit by police. Two other deportees confirmed the incident.

The deportees are among people expelled by the United States to Equatorial Guinea under President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, which has involved sending people to third countries when the United States cannot legally deport them to their home countries.

Washington has expelled at least 50 people, mostly Africans, to Equatorial Guinea since November. Twenty-seven remain in the hotel after Equatorial Guinea deported others to their home countries or onward to other countries.

The deportees say they are being held at the hotel under armed guard, given meagre rations and repeatedly pushed to return home. A local lawyer also confirmed that deportees are facing pressure to return to their home countries.

Soliman said he fears returning to Egypt because he is gay. Another deportee, who used the pseudonym Him, said he feared being killed if sent back to what is now Eritrea. The deportees interviewed by AFP said they had won deportation protections in the United States after judges found their lives would be in danger in their home countries.

The deportees cannot claim asylum in Equatorial Guinea. They also said they were deported without passports. Soliman said authorities were pressuring him to accept a government-issued travel document instead.

Neither the US State Department nor Equatorial Guinea's national security minister responded to requests for comment.

In July, deportees said they panicked after a guard told them an Ebola patient was being housed in the hotel. Videos shared with AFP showed men in hazmat suits walking through the building. Authorities have not commented on the incident, and Equatorial Guinea has not reported any Ebola cases.

A lawsuit was filed in June at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to try to halt US deportations to Equatorial Guinea. US and local lawyers said 10 more people arrived on July 30.