MBABANE: A Jamaican man deported from the United States to the southern African country of Eswatini two months ago has been repatriated to Jamaica, Eswatini’s government said.
The man, named in the government statement as Orville Isaac Etoria, was one of five third-country nationals deported to Eswatini in July by the Trump administration as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration.
The other four — from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen — are still being held in detention there while efforts to repatriate them are ongoing, Eswatini’s government said.
“Mr Etoria has safely returned to Jamaica, where he was warmly welcomed by members of his family,” said the Eswatini government statement issued on Monday.
He was repatriated on Sunday of his own volition, it said. President Donald Trump aims to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally and his administration has sought to ramp up removals to third countries, including South Sudan and Ghana.
The US Department of Homeland Security said in July that the five individuals sent to Eswatini, who were all convicted criminals, were “so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won’t take them back.” Etoria had been convicted of murder, it said.
But Eswatini’s government said shortly after that some of the countries had reached out to say it was not true that they had rejected their citizens. Critics say the US removals to third countries aim to stoke fear among migrants and encourage them to “self deport” to their home countries rather than be sent to distant places they have no connection with.
Etoria, who arrived in the US as a child, had already served a 25-year sentence for his crime and been released when he was deported and imprisoned again in Eswatini without due process, according to the New York-based Legal Aid Society.
Eswatini says Jamaican man deported by US has been repatriated
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Eswatini says Jamaican man deported by US has been repatriated
- The man, named in the government statement as Orville Isaac Etoria, was one of five third-country nationals deported to Eswatini in July by the Trump administration
- “Mr Etoria has safely returned to Jamaica,” said the Eswatini government
Greek coast guard search for 15 after migrant boat found adrift
- The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water
ATHENS: Greek coast guard were on Monday searching for 15 people who fell into the water from a migrant boat that was found drifting off the coast of Crete with 17 bodies on board.
The 17 fatalities, all of them men, were discovered on Saturday on the craft, which was taking on water and partially deflated, some 26 nautical miles (48 kilometers) southwest of the island.
Post-mortem examinations were being carried out to determine how they died but Greek public television channel ERT suggested they may have suffered from hypothermia or dehydration.
A Greek coast guard spokeswoman told AFP that two survivors reported that “15 people fell in the water” after the motor cut out on Thursday, then the vessel drifted for two days.
At the time, Crete and much of the rest of Greece was battered by heavy rain and storms.
The two survivors reported that the vessel had become unstable due to bad weather and there was no means of getting shelter, food or water.
The vessel had 34 people on board and had left the Libyan port of Tobruk on Wednesday, the Greek port authorities said. Most of those who died came from Sudan and Egypt.
It was initially spotted by a Turkish-flagged cargo ship on Saturday, triggering a search that included ships and aircraft from the Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex.
Migrants have been trying to reach Crete from Libya for the last year, as a way of entering the European Union. But the Mediterranean crossing is perilous.
In Brussels, the EU’s 27 members on Monday backed a significant tightening of immigration policy, including the concept of returning failed asylum-seekers to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
The UN refugee agency said more than 16,770 asylum seekers in the EU have arrived on Crete since the start of the year — more than any other island in the Aegean Sea.
Greece’s conservative government has also toughened its migration policy, suspending asylum claims for three months, particularly those coming to Crete from Libya.
