Two Detainees Held After Breaking Mirror at Malabo Hotel

Aspen —A $7.5 million deal. Over 40 people. One hotel on the outskirts of Malabo.

The question locals keep asking is simple: if we’re paying to ship asylum seekers halfway across the world, why do they still look like they’re being held in a closet?

For context, this isn’t a new arrangement. The Trump administration has been using obscure agreements to deport thousands of people to nearly two dozen countries other than their own. But Equatorial Guinea is the odd one out. It’s a small, oil-rich state in central Africa, and its longtime President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has turned a place called the Bamy Hotel into a de facto prison. On paper, it’s a detention center. In practice, it’s a holding pen with a view of the ocean.

The latest twist involves two men: Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian national, and Samson Birhane, from Eritrea. According to their lawyers, they were arbitrarily arrested on Sept. 11. The charge? Breaking a mirror.

Let’s do the math. One mirror. Two men. Bags over their heads. Beating in front of other detainees. Gunpoint. That’s a lot of drama for a piece of glass.

Isabella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, which represents the detainees, said the violence is escalating. She described an incident on July 31 where masked police officers broke into hotel rooms, grabbed five people by the neck, tackled them to the ground, and threatened them at gunpoint.

The lawyers believe the arrests of Soliman and Birhane are retaliation. They had raised alarms about the conditions of their detention and the police violence they endured. Now, they’ve been moved to the La Luna police station, where they’re being held. They haven’t been able to speak to a lawyer.

The administration is trying to pressure them to agree to be returned to their countries of origin. So far, 12 people have been sent back, including four Ethiopians earlier this month. The rest remain at the Bamy Hotel, facing attempts to confiscate their phones.

Videos of Soliman protesting his treatment, held at gunpoint by a police officer in the hotel, have been published in international media. It’s hard to argue that this is a quiet, orderly process.

The bottom line for folks watching this from the Western Slope is that the money is leaving the country, but the accountability isn’t following it. We’re funding a system where men are beaten for breaking mirrors and held in hotels that double as prisons. The deal was supposed to be a deterrent. Instead, it’s become a case study in what happens when you pay someone else to hold your problems for you.