Two men deported by the United States, Ahmed Soliman of Egypt and Samson Birhane of Eritrea, are being held in an overcrowded police cell in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, with no access to a lawyer. Lawyers and the human rights group Amnesty International say Equatorial Guinean police put bags over the men's heads, beat them, and held them at gunpoint after arresting them on accusations of breaking a mirror.

Soliman and Birhane are two of more than 40 people the United States has deported to Equatorial Guinea under a $7.5 million agreement with the Trump administration, even though many were never citizens of that country. Their lawyers believe the arrests were retaliation for speaking out about earlier police violence at the hotel-turned-detention site where the group was being held. "Amnesty International believes that the police officers targeted them in reprisal for reporting the authorities' violent threats to coerce them to agree to return to their countries of origin," the organization said, according to the Associated Press.

Equatorial Guinea's government, led by longtime President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has a documented record of detaining and abusing people who speak out. Sending asylum seekers there, with no guarantee of legal access or safety, puts their lives at risk and lets the United States sidestep its own legal protections for people fleeing danger.

The U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security should immediately halt further deportations to Equatorial Guinea and demand Soliman and Birhane be granted access to legal counsel without delay. Sign the petition to demand the U.S. government stop these transfers before another detainee is beaten into silence.