The facts
According to witnesses and human rights lawyers, two men deported from the US to Equatorial Guinea were bound, had bags placed over their heads, were beaten, and pushed down a flight of stairs. The incident occurred in plain view of other US deportees. The men, one from Egypt and one from Eritrea, were subsequently taken to a prison. Around 30 detainees from the US are reportedly still held at the Hotel Bamy, a facility described as a detention center for US deportees. Detainees believe the men were targeted for speaking to the press and human rights advocates about the conditions and violence at the hotel. Human rights experts have previously warned about dangerous conditions at the Hotel Bamy. The US has sent at least 66 individuals to Equatorial Guinea as part of a cooperation deal for deportations, receiving $7.5 million. The Trump administration has pursued agreements with countries to accept immigrants the US cannot deport to their home countries due to fears of torture or persecution. The two men who were allegedly tortured, Ahmed Soliman and Samson Birhane, have since been transferred to a prison in Malabo. Lawyers have alerted the US embassy in Equatorial Guinea to threats and violence against detainees but have not received a response. The US Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment, while a State Department spokesperson stated the US uses all legal means to remove those without the right to remain.
Our take
Let's get the fucking math straight. The United States government, which claims it can't send people back to Egypt or Eritrea because they might face torture, has a brilliant fucking solution. It writes a check for $7.5 million to Equatorial Guinea - a country whose idea of hospitality is a dungeon with room service - and says, 'You handle it.' That's $113,636.36 per person, so far, for the privilege of being disappeared into a shithole 'hotel' where the concierge service is a beating. The Trump administration didn't broker a diplomatic agreement; it outsourced cruelty. It's the ultimate gig economy for human rights abuses: we provide the cash and the bodies, they provide the bindings and the stairwells.
For that seven-figure fee, the Hotel Bamy offers a premier 'Shut the Fuck Up' package. Ahmed Soliman and Samson Birhane, the Egyptian and Eritrean men who dared to describe the violence to lawyers and the press, were the lucky recipients. They were tied up, had bags thrown over their heads, were beaten, and were then pushed down a flight of stairs. This little demonstration was performed in front of an audience of other US deportees, a masterclass in terror-as-public-spectacle. The message was crystal clear: talk about the shit we do to you, and we'll turn your trip to the lobby into a fucking stunt fall. Their reward for surviving the performance art? A transfer from the hotel to a proper prison in Malabo. Because the binding-and-beating suite was just the goddamn welcome mat.
The sheer, weaponized hypocrisy is breathtaking. Lawyers have been screaming at the US embassy in Equatorial Guinea about the threats and violence. The response has been a silence so profound it could be measured in decibels of pure, uncut bureaucratic indifference. Meanwhile, a State Department spokesperson robotically claims the US 'uses all legal means to remove those without the right to remain.' Bullshit. The 'legal means' here is paying a dictator to do the torture we're too chickenshit to put on our own official ledger. It's a shell game where the pea of responsibility is permanently under someone else's cup. We wash our hands with $7.5 million in cash and call it foreign policy.
Now, about 30 other people are still checked into the Hotel Bamy, a detention center that makes a Motel 6 look like the goddamn Ritz. They get to wonder if they'll be next for the stair-toss special or if they'll just rot in quiet misery. The Department of Homeland Security can't even muster a 'no comment,' because the deal is done. The money has cleared. The plausible deniability was built into the contract. This is the end result of a policy designed by assholes who think morality is a line item. You pay a bastard to be a bigger bastard, you look the other way, and you call it a successful deportation. The only thing more violent than the beatings is the cost-effective fucking calculus behind them.
