By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A US judge has ordered the Donald Trump administration to facilitate the release and return of an Egyptian national who was deported to Equatorial Guinea this year and held in detention back to the US.
In a ruling sighted by Reuters on Thursday, the judge John C. Hinderaker said the Department of Homeland Security must facilitate Ahmed Soliman’s release from custody and his return to the US. That, the court says includes arranging any travel documentation he would need to return.
Soliman is one of hundreds of migrants sent from the US to African countries under Trump’s third-country deportation deals, which the US government has used to accelerate the deportation of migrants.
Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Thursday that 536 people had been deported to African countries “that are neither their country of citizenship nor habitual residence” between January 2025 and August 2026.
Soliman had last month said he had faced torture by Equatorial Guinean police officers. Video evidence showed police pulling firearms on migrants including Soliman.
Following a public outcry, Soliman was taken into custody and has been held incommunicado at a police station that has also been used to detain human rights activists.
Soliman wrote in a declaration to an immigration judge last year that he feared being killed in Egypt because he is gay.
Since Trump returned to power, there has been several cases in which migrants granted US legal protection after being persecuted for their LGBT status were deported to third countries in Africa.
Most of the so-called third countries criminalise same-sex relations or have been described by the State Department as hostile to LGBT people.
