ABUJA, Nigeria — Lawyers filed a complaint Friday with Africa’s top human rights body to halt U.S. deportations to Equatorial Guinea, which has served as a waystation for sending people back to countries where they fear persecution. The complaint was lodged against Equatorial Guinea at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, based in the Gambia, and also seeks to halt Equatorial Guinea’s onward expulsion of the deportees to their home countries. As part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on immigration, he has expanded the scope of deportation targets to include those with legal protections against being sent home. In cases where Washington is legally barred from sending people home directly, it has sent deportees to countries like Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea has then held them without charge before deporting them to their countries of origin. “The U.S. is increasingly treating these protections as if they are a loophole that allows the U.S. to enlist third countries to effectuate return,” a statement from the five legal and human rights groups beh
