eSwatini's US deportees case stalls

Human rights lawyers and activists have sued the eSwatini Government for making a secretive deal with President Donald Trump’s administration to accept third-country deportees from the US, which they say is unconstitutional. The case was due be heard at the High Court of eSwatini on Friday, but was postponed until 25 September because the government did not file responding papers, the lead applicant said outside the court on Friday. Attorney-General Sifiso Khumalo said in a text message that the case had no legal basis. ‘It's a frivolous legal application,’ he wrote. BusinessLIVE reports that in July, the US deported five individuals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen to eSwatini. All were convicted felons, and eSwatini says it is holding them in solitary confinement until they can be repatriated. The applicants in the case, led by the eSwatini Litigation Centre, say that the agreement made with the US was illegal because it was not submitted to parliament for approval and the terms were not disclosed. They also say they do not know the condition of the deportees because no-one had been allowed access to them.

Full BusinessLIVE report

Uganda, meanwhile, has agreed to a deal with the US to take deported migrants on condition that the deportees do not have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors, officials said. The Ugandan Foreign Affairs Ministry said the ‘two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented'. Uganda also expressed a preference that those brought into the country should be of African nationalities, reports The Hill. According to CBS News, which cited US Government documents, the administration of US President Donald Trump had reportedly reached its latest agreements with Uganda and Honduras to accept deportees as part of a broader effort to persuade countries worldwide to assist in its crackdown on illegal immigration. It was not clear if the agreement had been signed but the Ministry statement said it had been ‘concluded’.

Full report in The Hill