{"id":47625,"date":"2026-10-09T09:50:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T07:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=47625"},"modified":"2026-10-09T09:50:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T07:50:35","slug":"us-judge-orders-return-of-egyptian-deported-to-equatorial-guinea","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/us-judge-orders-return-of-egyptian-deported-to-equatorial-guinea\/","title":{"rendered":"US judge orders return of Egyptian deported to Equatorial Guinea"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MailCompose\"><\/div>\n<div>A United States (US)\u00a0 judge has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the release and return of an Egyptian man who was \u200bdeported to Equatorial Guinea this year and has since been \u200cjailed there.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Ahmed Soliman is one of hundreds of migrants sent from the US to African countries under so-called third-country deportation deals that the US government has used \u200bto accelerate removals.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Human Rights Watch said in a report published \u200bon Thursday that 536 people had been deported to African \u2060countries &#8220;that are neither their country of citizenship nor habitual residence&#8221; between \u200bJanuary 2025 and August 2026.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Last month, Soliman said he had faced rough \u200btreatment by Equatorial Guinean police officers. Video obtained by Reuters showed police pulling firearms on migrants including Soliman.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After <i>Reuters<\/i> published its story, Soliman was taken into custody and \u200bhas been held incommunicado at a gendarmerie station that has also \u200bbeen used to detain human rights activists.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In a ruling seen by <i>Reuters<\/i> on Thursday, \u200cUS \u2060judge John C. Hinderaker said the Department of Homeland Security must facilitate Soliman&#8217;s release from custody and his return to the US. That includes arranging any travel documentation he would need to return.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Guinea has also not responded to requests for comment about Soliman&#8217;s \u200bcase.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Soliman wrote in a declaration to an immigration judge \u200blast year \u2060that he feared being killed in Egypt because he is gay.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><i>Reuter<\/i>s has documented 40 cases in which migrants granted US legal protection after being persecuted \u2060for \u200btheir Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) status were deported to third \u200bcountries in Africa that either criminalise same-sex relations or have been described by the State \u200bDepartment as hostile to LGBT people.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16035,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-47625","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Last month, Soliman said he had faced rough \u200btreatment by Equatorial Guinean police officers","published_date":"","news_description":"Last month, Soliman said he had faced rough \u200btreatment by Equatorial Guinean police officers","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47626,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/47625\/revisions\/47626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=47625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}