Four men deported by US to Eswatini have right to see lawyer, court rules | US immigration
Eswatini’s high court has ruled that four men deported to Eswatini by the United States and denied in-person legal counsel for nine months while detained in a maximum security prison have the right to meet with a local lawyer.
The men from Cambodia, Cuba, Vietnam and Yemen were sent to the small southern African country formerly known as Swaziland in July as part of the Donald Trump administration’s efforts to step up deportation efforts, despite having no ties to the country.
The US government had labeled these men as dangerous criminals. Their lawyers said they had already served their sentences for crimes committed in the United States. Corrections officials in Eswatini did not allow a local lawyer to see the men, but did allow them to call their U.S. attorney, the lawyers said.
The court rejected the government’s claim that the “prisoners persistently showed no interest” in meeting with human rights lawyer Sibusiso Magnificent Nhlabatsi. judgment It was delivered on Thursday.
The three judges ruled: “There can be no real harm in allowing the defendant access to detainees… if they do not want to see the defendant, it is the detainees’ responsibility to tell the defendant to his face.”
One of the first five deported people was sent back to Jamaica in September. Another 10 arrived in Eswatini in October; one of them was repatriated to Cambodia on March 26, and the other four were also repatriated to Cambodia. last month.
Alma David, the US lawyer for several of the men, said: “Nearly nine months of litigation and a decision by the nation’s highest court to get something as innocuous as allowing my clients to meet with a local lawyer show just how hard the Eswatini government fought to deny these men their most basic rights.”
Eswatini government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He had previously said: “The government of the Kingdom of Eswatini, in accordance with national laws and international obligations, has made every reasonable effort to ensure that third-country nationals removed from the United States government are housed in conditions that respect their fundamental rights and human dignity.”
The United States has deported dozens of people to third countries from which they did not originate, including Ghana, South Sudan and Uganda. Human rights lawyers and NGOs have described the deportations as a form of human trafficking.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said: “Allegations of criminal illegal aliens being repatriated to third countries [sic] It’s crazy that ‘human trafficking’ is a form of it. “The Trump administration is using all legal options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised.”
