Rights lawyers challenge odious US deportation scheme in court
Activists are suing Eswatini for accepting deportees as Uganda becomes the latest country to bend the knee.
Lydia Namubiru
Human rights defenders are suing the Eswatini government for accepting deportees from the United States, arguing it is both irrational and unlawful.
The arrangement, reportedly struck between US President Donald Trump and Eswatini Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini, saw five deportees – described as “convicted criminals” – flown in and held in a maximum security prison in Eswatini.
Critics point out that international law prohibits deportation to countries in which returnees may face oppression. Deportees are also entitled to contest their removal in court, but there is no evidence that the US is allowing them to do so. Worse yet, the US is sending people to countries in which they have no family, ancestral, or social ties – and stranding them there with no clear path to legal status or protection.
The five men deported to Eswatini were from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen. US authorities claimed the men were criminals whose home countries had refused to take them back. But, as The Africa Report notes, Jamaica disputes ever being contacted.
Days earlier, eight men were also deported to South Sudan under similar circumstances. Rwanda and Uganda have recently confirmed deals.
What these African governments are receiving in return is not clear. But if Rwanda’s 2022 deal with the UK is anything to go by, they could be getting money, trade deals or other diplomatic sweeteners.
Uganda’s foreign minister Henry Okello Oryem has hinted that the country was negotiating with the US on visa restrictions, tariffs, and sanctions.
In an opinion sent to The Continent, the director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, Anneke Meerkotter, questioned how deporting foreigners to countries with which they have no connection could be considered lawful.
Highlighting the wholesale labelling of deportees as dangerous criminals, she said: “Labels that dehumanise do not justify the acceptance of foreign nationals who were illegally deported.”