Advocacy groups representing deportees sent by the US to Equatorial Guinea filed a complaint on Friday with the main human rights body of the African Union, an attempt to drum up opposition on the continent to the Trump administration's immigration policies.

The complaint was submitted to the Gambia-based African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights on behalf of 14 people from African countries who were deported from the US to Equatorial Guinea starting in November of last year.

All of the so-called third-country deportees had obtained legal protection in the US against their repatriation. President Donald Trump's government has embraced third-country deportations to African countries as part of what critics say is an attempt to circumvent those protections.

Washington has defended the deportations as lawful and says they are part of a strategy "to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security."

SIX DEPORTEES ALREADY SENT HOME

Six of those represented in the complaint filed on Friday have been forcibly repatriated from Equatorial Guinea within the last week despite expressing fear of persecution or torture, according to the human rights groups representing them.

Three were then sent back to Equatorial Guinea after their home countries refused to accept them, while lawyers have lost contact with the other three, the groups said in a statement.

The other eight deportees are still detained in Equatorial Guinea.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights is mandated to promote human rights among member states through "urgent appeals" and "friendly settlement of disputes", according to its website.

The complaint asks that the commission suspend further repatriations and guarantee the deportees have access to lawyers, among other provisional measures. It could decide to hear the case itself or refer it to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, based in Tanzania.

The government of Equatorial Guinea did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint filed on Friday.

In a report published in February, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the total cost of third-country removals was unknown, but that more than $32-million had been sent directly to five countries, including $7.5-million to Equatorial Guinea.