Archive photo of prisoners for illustration purposes only. (Photo: Wikus de Wet / AFP).
The highest court in Eswatini ruled that migrants who were deported from the USA to this country last year are entitled to visits from a local legal representative.
The ruling follows after the government’s appeal against an earlier court order failed. This order made it possible for Eswatini human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi to visit the first group of five deported men.
According to the court, the state did not dispute the core issue of access. “The issue of access in itself is not contested in the appeal, but the court feels obliged to point out that there is ultimately no real disadvantage in giving the respondent access to the detainees,” the panel of three judges ruled on Thursday.
The court further emphasized that the choice lies with the detainees themselves: “It is up to the detainees to, if they do not want to see the respondent, tell him personally.”
Eswatini took in 19 men as part of agreements with the US to accept migrants under a so-called third-country deportation program – a practice widely criticized by human rights groups.
One of the men, a Jamaican citizen, has already been sent back to the Caribbean island, while 17 men are currently being held at a high security facility outside the capital Mbabane.
Archive photo of a prisoner for illustration purposes only. (Photo: Wikus de Wet / AFP).
According to documents released by Human Rights Watch, Eswatini agreed to receive up to 160 deportees in exchange for funding to strengthen border and migration management. The country also confirmed that it received about $5.1 million from the US.
Alma David, a migration lawyer in the US who represents some of the detainees, says the long legal process causes concern.
“The fact that it took almost nine months of litigation and a decision by the highest court to bring about these visits speaks volumes about how hard the government of Eswatini is fighting to deprive these men of their most basic rights.”
The deportation policy forms part of a broader move under pres. Donald Trump to deport migrants to other countries. Other African countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan have also already accepted deportees from the US.