A complaint filed with the African Commission on Human Rights challenges controversial expulsion practices.
Published June 5, 2026
The International Federation of Lawyers has filed a lawsuit against Africa’s top human rights organization seeking to block the deportation of a person from the United States to Equatorial Guinea.
The lawsuit filed by the African Commission on Human Rights against Equatorial Guinea on Friday specifically targets so-called “third country” agreements between the West African country and the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Under this policy, the United States can deport individuals to Equatorial Guinea who cannot be safely returned to their home country. The practice has been widely criticized for sending deportees to countries with dismal rights records, where they often have no ties to the country and don’t speak the language.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 14 deportees. The indictment says some are still being held in Equatorial Guinea under conditions “amounting to arbitrary and indefinite detention.”
Six of the complainants had already been deported from Equatorial Guinea within the last week, despite expressing fears of persecution and torture, according to the human rights group representing them.
Three of them were repatriated to Equatorial Guinea after their home country refused to accept them. Lawyers say they have lost contact with the other three.
The group includes U.S.-based Asian American Advocates, the Global Strategic Litigation Council and EG Justice, as well as Gambia’s African Institute for Human Rights and Development and the Tanzania-based Pan African Lawyers Federation.
The complaint asks the commission assessing compliance with African Charter rights to take interim measures, such as suspending further deportations and ensuring deportees have access to lawyers.
The Gambia-based commission could hear the case or refer it to the Tanzania-based African Court of Human Rights.
According to AFP news agency, about 32 people are believed to have been deported to Equatorial Guinea since last year, but the total number is unknown.
In its 2024 human rights report, the U.S. State Department cited “credible reports” of “torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” and other “serious human rights issues” in Equatorial Guinea.
The Trump administration, which has overseen mass deportations, defended the deportations to “third countries” as legal and part of a strategy to “remove large numbers of illegal immigrants and strengthen America’s border security.”
