MALABO — The Bamy Hotel in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, has been used as a detention facility for at least 32 U.S.-deported asylum seekers since November 2025 under a $7.5 million agreement between the Trump administration and the government of Equatorial Guinea. The hotel is owned by the family of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Of the detainees, 25 have already been forced to return to their home countries in Africa.

All of the individuals held at the Bamy Hotel had previously been granted protection by U.S. immigration judges, according to their lawyers. The remaining detainees face ongoing pressure from authorities to leave the country. Detainees are from Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Mauritania.

A 26-year-old man from an East African country detained at the hotel described repeated demands from officials to produce his passport and return home. "Government people would come all the time and say: Where is your passport? You need to go back to your own country," he said. He added, "I am scared and depressed." He stated he would be imprisoned or killed if sent back due to his ethnicity and his prior flight from the country.

Detainees report intense psychological pressure but no physical abuse. They sleep in hotel rooms that are rarely cleaned and are served meals in the hotel’s restaurant, though food quality has caused illness. Medical care has been inconsistent: the East African man was quickly treated for an eye issue but received delayed hospitalization for malaria and typhoid. Other detainees have had similar experiences with delayed treatment.

The man said a police officer once told him his problems would disappear if he jumped from the hotel’s fourth floor. "What can I do now? It’s become worse. I started losing my mind," he said. He is the only detainee known to have seen a lawyer, who has formally requested his release from the prime minister’s office.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said, "We remain unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration." Equatorial Guinea, which has no asylum policy, did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives from the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration and its refugee agency visited the hotel in November 2025 but never returned as promised.