US sends another ‘third-country’ deportation flight to Eswatini

The United States (US) has sent a second so-called ‘third-country’ deportation flight to the tiny southern African nation of Eswatini, shrugging off human rights concerns.

Eswatini’s government confirmed on Monday it had received ten deportees from the US who were not nationals of the kingdom. That came after five other deportees from the US were sent to Eswatini in July.

The White House confirmed the deportations on Monday, saying the individuals had committed serious crimes.

Neither the US nor Eswatini confirmed the nationalities of the individuals who arrived on Monday. However, US-based immigration lawyer Tin Nguyen says they included three people from Vietnam, one from the Philippines and one from Cambodia.

Rights groups have condemned the treatment of the first group of deportees sent to Eswatini — which included individuals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen — saying they were kept in solitary confinement and not given access to lawyers.

Nguyen says he was representing two of those who arrived on Monday and two others previously sent to Eswatini, but he remains unable to speak with any of them.

“I cannot call them. I cannot email them. I cannot communicate through local counsel because the Eswatini government blocks all attorney access,” he says in a statement provided to Reuters news agency.

Amid its mass deportation push, the Trump administration has increasingly relied on sending deportees to third countries when they cannot legally send them to their homeland.

Rights advocates have challenged the practice, fearing it can leave those expelled stranded in countries where they do not speak the language and may not be afforded due process.

The Trump administration has also sent “third country” deportees to South Sudan, Ghana and Rwanda.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson says the latest group of deportees sent to Eswatini had been convicted of “heinous crimes”, including murder and rape.

“They do not belong in the United States,” Jackson says.

Activists in Eswatini, a small mountain kingdom bordering South Africa, have also condemned the government’s secretive deal with the US. They have launched a legal challenge in hopes of scuttling the agreement.

For its part, the Eswatini department of correctional services has maintained that it is “committed to the humane treatment of all persons in its custody”.

The department says the individuals would be kept in correctional facilities until they could be repatriated to their home countries.

– Al Jazeera

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