Inside the luxury hotel at the center of Trump’s deportation deal with Equatorial Guinea
Migrants sent from the US are being held at the Bamy hotel against their will and pressured to leave for their home countries
TL;DR
- The Bamy hotel in Equatorial Guinea is being used as a detention center for asylum seekers deported from the US.
- The Trump administration struck a $7.5 million deal with Equatorial Guinea to use the hotel, owned by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo's family.
- At least 32 individuals with prior US protection have been held at the hotel since November.
- Deportees face psychological pressure to return to their home countries, where they risk persecution, violence, torture, and death.
- UN human rights experts have publicly appealed for Equatorial Guinea to stop deportations, warning against refoulement.
- The US administration declined to comment on the specifics of the deal, citing a commitment to ending illegal immigration.