Manzini, Eswatini (AP) – A group of 10 deportee migrants from the United States arrived early Monday The African Nation of EdiniThe authorities said.
They are the last of more than 40 deportees sent to Africa since July after the Trump administration has concluded largely secret agreements with at least five nations there to take migrants as part of the new country’s expulsion program that rights and others have protested.
A lawyer for two of the last deportees told the Associated Press earlier on Monday that their flight had arrived in the Kingdom of Southern Africa after leaving Alexandria, Louisiana, and stopping in Porto Rico, Senegal and Angola.
Tin Thanh Nguyen, the American lawyer, said that he represents two Vietnamese nationals who were in flight. He said they had been detained at the Immigration Center for the installation of Alexandria in Louisiana. Nguyen said he followed their flight with the help of the Human Rights First rights group.
The Eswatini government confirmed in a statement that 10 deportees had arrived and “were safely welcomed in one of the country’s correctional establishments”. He did not name them, do not give details on their nationalities or say where they are detained. He said they were “healthy and suffered admission processes”.
Four men De Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen who were expelled in Eswatini in mid-July were detained in the MaStapha prison with maximum security in the country at nochy For almost three months, said their lawyers. Nguyen represents two of these men.
The United States said men sent to Eswatini in July were convicted criminals who had expulsion orders. A Jamaican man in this first group was repatriated to his country of origin last month.
After the latest deportees arrived, the government of Eswatini said that it “remained attached to the human treatment of all those in police custody”.
The four men were allowed to make phone calls to their families and lawyers in the United States, however, the authorities did not authorize a lawyer based in Eswatini to visit them. The lawyer won a court decision on Friday by granting him access, but the government immediately appealed, preventing him from visiting them.
The US authorities have returned questions about the treatment of men to Eswatini officials, a small kingdom bordering on South Africa where the king has absolute power and was accused of having reduced pro-democracy movements.
Few details on the expulsion agreements concluded between American and African countries have been published, but the International Human Rights Watch rights group said it had seen documents showing that the United States will pay $ 5.1 million Eswatini as part of an agreement to take up to 160 deportees.
The United States said it wants to expel Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Eswatini.
Rights defense groups have criticized the expulsion program for the sending of migrants to countries where they will likely be refused regular procedure.
The United States has also sent deportees to South Sudan, Rwanda and Ghana and have an agreement with Uganda, although no deportation has been announced.
Six deportees are still held in an unpertified installation in South Sudan, while Rwanda has not said where it holds seven deportees. Eleven of the 14 deportees sent to Ghana pursue the government there for having held them in what they have described as terrible conditions in a military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra.
___
Imray reported to Cape Town, South Africa.
___
AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
___
Follow the global migration coverage of https://apnews.com/hub/migration
