Equatorial Guinea paid $7.5m to accept US deportees

The US has sent $7.5m to the Government of Equatorial Guinea, one of the world’s most repressive and corrupt regimes, to accept non-citizen deportees, according to a leading congressional Democrat, current and former state department officials and public government data, reports The Guardian. The money sent to Equatorial Guinea is the first taken from a fund apportioned by Congress to address international refugee crises – and sometimes to facilitate the resettlement of refugees in the US – that has instead been repurposed under the Trump administration to hasten their deportation. According to government data, the sum from the Migration and Refugee Assistance emergency fund was sent directly to the Government of Equatorial Guinea, whose President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has been in power for the past 46 years, and who is accused along with his son, Nguema Obiang, the Vice-President, of embezzling millions of dollars from the country to fuel their lavish lifestyles. In a letter sent to Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, Jeanne Shaheen, the top-ranking Democratic senator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the payment ‘highly unusual’ and noted the country’s ‘history of corruption’ and government officials’ ‘complicity in human trafficking’ that raised ‘serious concerns over the responsible, transparent use of American taxpayer dollars’. She also asked what protections, if any, would ensure that the deportees would not be ‘vulnerable to human trafficking, human smuggling or human rights abuse’”. Washington has approached at least 58 governments about accepting deportees, often securing agreements through cash payments or diplomatic pressure, including travel ban threats.