Five migrants who rejected Trump’s deportation to Liberia reportedly diverted to Equatorial Guinea

Reuters reported⁠ that the group included three Cuban men, a Brazilian man and a Cameroonian woman.

It cited three people familiar with what happened, including a Honduran deportee aboard the aircraft. Liberia and Equatorial Guinea had not publicly confirmed the account at the time of reporting.

The aircraft arrived at Roberts International Airport near Monrovia on Thursday, August 20, with what Liberia had announced as the first group of 20 people received under its new deportation agreement with Washington.

Only 15 passengers disembarked, according to a Liberian official who spoke to Reuters anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter. The other five reportedly refused to leave the aircraft.

Two sources said that the migrants were informed that they would be returned to the United States. Instead, the aircraft flew to Malabo, where they were allegedly forced to disembark.

Flight information compiled by Human Rights First showed that the aircraft departed Louisiana and stopped in Dakar before landing near Monrovia at 12:45 p.m.

It subsequently left Liberia and arrived in Malabo at 8:50 p.m. local time.

The US Department of Homeland Security maintained that all the migrants had been deported to a safe third country. The State Department also said Washington remained committed to ending illegal immigration and strengthening US border security.

Trump’s Liberia agreement faces its first challenge

The disputed transfer occurred just two days after Liberia announced that it had agreed to receive up to 1,200 third-country deportees from the United States over 12 months.

The agreement is one of the largest arrangements reached between the Trump administration and an African government as Washington expands removals to countries other than the deportees’ homelands.

Liberian officials said the people covered by the programme would come from African countries and the Western Hemisphere. The first arrivals included nationals of Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Jamaica, Cameroon and Brazil.

Monrovia has described the agreement as a humanitarian initiative consistent with Liberia’s history of providing refuge.

The government said the deportees had undergone security screening and could apply for asylum in Liberia or choose to leave the country.

However, the five migrants’ refusal to disembark raises questions about what will happen when people sent to Liberia do not consent to remaining there.

It also adds to domestic concerns over the scale and transparency of the agreement. Liberia has not publicly disclosed its full terms, including the financial or diplomatic support Washington may provide.

Africa becomes central to Trump’s deportation strategy

Third-country removal allows the United States to send a migrant to a country other than the person’s country of citizenship.

Some of the migrants affected by the policy cannot legally be returned to their home countries because US immigration judges have determined that they could face persecution, torture or other serious harm.

The policy expanded after the US Supreme Court lifted a lower court restriction in June 2025, allowing the Trump administration to resume third-country deportations while the underlying legal dispute continued.

Trump has since secured agreements with several governments willing to receive foreign deportees. African countries involved in different stages of the programme have included Ghana, Eswatini, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia.

The White House said in January 2026 that the administration had signed seven safe-third-country agreements during Trump’s first year back in office.

The administration says the arrangements are necessary because some governments refuse to accept their nationals, while other migrants are protected from direct return to their countries.

Immigration lawyers and human-rights groups argue that the programme can move vulnerable people between countries without sufficient notice, access to lawyers or a meaningful opportunity to challenge their destination.

Concerns over the treatment of deportees in Equatorial Guinea

The five migrants sent from Liberia have reportedly joined dozens of other US deportees being held at a decommissioned hotel in Malabo.

An Egyptian migrant at the facility told Reuters that their arrival increased the number of detainees there to 40.

The figure has not been independently confirmed by the Equatorial Guinean government.

Five human-rights organisations had raised concerns about the facility eight days before the latest arrivals.

In a joint statement published on August 12⁠, the groups said nearly 50 third-country nationals had been transferred to Equatorial Guinea by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement since November 2025.

They said about 25 remained in the country when the statement was issued.

The organisations alleged that some deportees had experienced arbitrary detention, physical abuse, threats, inadequate medical treatment and restricted access to lawyers. Equatorial Guinea has not publicly responded to the latest allegations.

The statement was issued by the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, EG Justice, the Pan African Lawyers Union, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta and the Global Strategic Litigation Council.

The groups said Equatorial Guinea had assured the United States in an October 2025 diplomatic note that transferred migrants would be treated in line with international refugee and anti-torture obligations.

They have asked the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to prevent deportees from being sent to countries where they could face persecution, torture or other serious abuses.

The arrangement has also exposed a contradiction in Washington’s relationship with Malabo. The United States is using Equatorial Guinea as a destination for foreign deportees while maintaining severe restrictions on the entry of Equatorial Guinean nationals over security-screening and information-sharing concerns.

The latest diversion demonstrates the increasingly complicated role African governments are playing in Trump’s immigration policy, as countries accept people who may have no citizenship, family connections or established legal status within their territories.