Rights lawyers challengeRights lawyers challenge Equatorial Guinea over migrant deportations
Rights lawyers filed a complaint against Equatorial Guinea on Friday, accusing it of sending people deported from the United States back to their home countries instead of protecting them.
The case was brought before Africa’s top human rights body in a dispute that also draws in Washington’s deportation policy. It matters because it tests how far states can go in handling third-country deportees and whether their rights are safeguarded after removal from the United States.
Rights lawyers
Rights lawyers say Equatorial Guinea violated the rights of deportees by forcing them onward after they were transferred from the United States. They argue the case shows that people removed from one country still deserve legal protection in the next place they are sent.
Washington
Washington has defended the deportations as lawful and says they are part of a strategy to end illegal and mass immigration and strengthen border security. From this view, the removals are a tool of domestic enforcement rather than an international rights issue.
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea is being accused of accepting deportees and then sending them back to their home countries. The complaint places the country under scrutiny for how it treats people once they arrive on its territory.
- Equatorial Guinea’s mainland is separated from most of its territory by the Gulf of Guinea.
- The African human rights court sits in Arusha, Tanzania.
- The United States has used deportation agreements with third countries in past immigration enforcement efforts.
