MBABANE, Eswatini: Four more men deported from the United States under Washington’s scheme to expel undocumented migrants have arrived in the southern African kingdom of Eswatini, a lawyer and a prison official said Thursday.
The tiny country took in 15 men last year as part of US deals with several African nations for them to accept migrants under a third-country deportation program that has been widely criticized by rights groups.
Two of the newly arrived deportees are from Somalia, one from Tanzania and one from Sudan, US-based migration lawyer Alma David, who represents some of the other detainees, told AFP.
The four arrived at the maximum-security Matsapha Correctional Center, outside the capital, late Wednesday, an officer said on condition of anonymity.
“They are in perfect health,” the officer told AFP. “They are currently being oriented by the social welfare and health departments.”
The facility was preparing to receive around 140 more deportees, the official said.
According to a document revealed by Human Rights Watch in September and seen by AFP, Eswatini agreed to take 160 deportees in exchange for funds to build its border and migration management capacity.
Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, confirmed in November that it had received around $5.1 million from the United States to accept the deportees.
Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan have also accepted US deportees. Cameroon reportedly received 17 African nationals deported from the United States this year.
Eswatini authorities say they are only holding the deportees while arrangements are finalized for their repatriation.
One of the men sent to Eswatini, a 62-year-old Jamaican who had reportedly completed a murder sentence in the United States, was sent back to the Caribbean island nation in September.
Lawyers and civil society groups in Eswatini have gone to court to challenge the legality of the detentions, arguing that the deportees are being held “indefinitely” without charges.