JOHANNESBURG: US expulsions of detainees to African countries under “opaque deals,” some involving millions of dollars in financial assistance, violated global rights law and must be rejected, a rights watchdog said Tuesday.
Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan have in recent months accepted US deportees as part of a scheme by President Donald Trump’s administration to expel undocumented migrants.
Human Rights Watch said a deal between the United States and the small African kingdom of Eswatini, which has not been made public, involved $5.1 million to build its border and migration management capacity.
In return, Eswatini agreed to accept up to 160 deportees, HRW said in a statement.
The kingdom in July accepted five nationals from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen who had been convicted of crimes in the United States.
It jailed them at its maximum security Matsapha Correctional Center, which is notorious for holding political prisoners and for overcrowding.
A 62-year-old Jamaican national, who had reportedly completed a sentence for murder in the United States, was sent to Jamaica at the weekend, a government spokesman said.
Lawyers and civil society groups in Eswatini have gone to court to challenge the legality of the detentions and demand the government make public the terms of its deal with Washington.
HRW said it had also seen the deal with Rwanda, which had reportedly agreed to accept up to 250 deportees in exchange for roughly $7.5 million in US financial support.
“The opaque deals that facilitate these transfers, at least some of which include US financial assistance, are part of a US policy approach that violates international human rights law and is designed to instrumentalize human suffering as a deterrent to migration,” HRW said.
It urged African governments to refuse to accept US deportees and to terminate deals already in effect.
“These agreements make African governments partners in the Trump administration’s horrifying violations of immigrants’ human rights,” said advocacy director Allan Ngari.
The countries involved should “disclose their terms, allow access to independent monitors, refrain from detaining any deportees absent a clear legal basis,” it said.
And they should ensure that none are returned to their home country if there is evidence that they could be harmed, HRW said.