Five US deportees who resisted Liberia removal sent to Equatorial Guinea
Five migrants who refused to leave a US deportation flight in Liberia were taken to Equatorial Guinea, sources told Reuters.
Monrovia, Liberia. Five people whom the United States attempted to deport to Liberia this week refused to disembark and were transported instead to Equatorial Guinea, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The incident affected Washington’s plan to send up to 1,200 third-country deportees to Liberia under an agreement announced this week.
Deportation flight
Liberia said on Tuesday it had agreed to receive deportees and that an initial group of 20 people would arrive on Thursday. A Liberian official told Reuters on Friday that 15 deportees disembarked from the flight.
At least five others — three Cuban men, a Brazilian man and a Cameroonian woman — refused to leave the plane in Liberia, according to three sources familiar with the incident, including a Honduran deportee who was on the flight.
The sources said authorities told the five they would be flown to the United States, but the aircraft instead travelled to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The five were forced to disembark there against their will, two sources said.
Third-country removals
The five are now being held with more than 30 migrants previously sent by the Trump administration to Equatorial Guinea, the sources said.
Third-country deportees have in most cases received legal protection from removal to their home countries after US immigration judges found they could face torture or other abuses there.
Liberia’s information ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
US response
The State Department said on Friday it remained “unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security”.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said all migrants involved “were deported to a safe third country”, adding: “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period”.
Human rights groups and immigration advocates have criticised agreements in Africa to receive deportees, saying many are ultimately repatriated.
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