Inside the luxury hotel at the center of Trump's deportation deal with Equatorial Guinea

A tropical hotel on Bioko is being used as a detention site for asylum seekers deported from the United States. Since late last year, only a small number of people have been held there against their will, under an opaque $7.5 million arrangement with the Trump administration. The hotel functions as a temporary holding place, with at least 32 people imprisoned since November after US judges had granted them protection. Lawyers say 25 were forced to return to African countries where they may face danger, while others face pressure to leave. Detainees report frequent government visits demanding passports and ordering them to go back. Deportations to third countries are described by immigration lawyers as a legal loophole to indirectly push asylum seekers toward their home countries. Authoritarian governance and restricted access make conditions difficult for journalists to verify, and only limited international reporting has occurred.

"Since late last year, only a small number of people have been staying there, and they aren't on vacation. They are being held against their will. Under an opaque $7.5m deal with the Trump administration, Equatorial Guinea's all-powerful president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has turned this hotel owned by his family into a prison for asylum seekers deported from the United States. The hotel is just a way station, though."

"Of the at least 32 people imprisoned there since November all of whom had previously been granted protection by US judges, their lawyers said 25 have been forced to go back to home countries across Africa where their lives might be in danger. The rest face pressure from authorities to leave. Government people would come all the time and say, Where is your passport? You need to go back to your own country,' said a 26-year-old man from an east African country imprisoned at the hotel."

"The Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole, immigration lawyers say, to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their home countries. Because Equatorial Guinea is run by an authoritarian government, as are some other countries that have signed similar deals, it is difficult for foreign journalists to visit and report directly on conditions there. The AP traveled to the island of Bioko as part of a recent visit by the first American pope , and is the only international news organization to visit the hotel detaining migrants."

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