Amnesty accuses E.Guinea of abusing US deportees

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents escort a detained man at the Ventura Government Center in Ventura, California, United States, on July 30, 2026. [AFP]

Rights group Amnesty accused the authorities in Equatorial Guinea on Friday of beating and jailing two people, who were expelled from the United States under a divisive immigration policy earlier this year.

The pair, named as Ahmed Soliman and Samson Birhane, had been living in a hotel since they arrived in the central African nation -- where neither of them are from.

But Amnesty said they were beaten and violently removed from the hotel last Friday, before being put into an overcrowded cell at a paramilitary police base.

Washington has expelled dozens of people under a plan to reduce immigration, championed by the Trump administration, that sees them pay countries to take non-nationals.

But Soliman told AFP last month that he and several others staying in a hotel in the city of Malabo had been mistreated and felt the authorities wanted them to leave.

"I have police officers yanking on my neck, trying to throw me on the ground, I have officers elbowing me in my back," Soliman, originally from Egypt, told AFP.

Amnesty said in a statement that he and Birhane, originally from Eritrea, were unlawfully arrested and accused of "breaking a mirror" at the hotel.

"Police officers covered the two men's heads with a bag and beat them in their heads, backs and ribs," the NGO said, adding that it seemed like a reprisal for speaking out about their treatment.

"Since then, the two men have been held in an overcrowded police cell, in inhumane conditions, unable to speak to their lawyer," the group added, demanding their immediate release.