African fury over US deportation deals

President Donald Trump's quiet deals with African leaders to house dangerous deportees from other nations, who are jailed in the US and cannot be repatriated to their home countries, has unleashed anger, with many warning that the move could turn the continent into a recipient of international criminal elements, notes Legalbrief. According to CNN, across Africa, and especially in eSwatini in southern Africa, fury erupted this past week over the arrival of foreign deportees from the US after its government confirmed that migrants described by a Department of Homeland security spokesperson as ‘depraved monsters’ had been sent to its prisons. Roughly the size of New Jersey, eSwatini – formerly known as Swaziland – is governed by a monarch who has absolute power. Officials said that five deportees from the US were being held in isolated units in its jails, acknowledging ‘widespread concern’ but insisting the deported men ‘pose no threat to the country or its citizens’. The five men are being kept in solitary confinement, acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said on Friday, but stopped short of disclosing the prisons they were held in, citing security risks. Mdluli did not reveal how long the men would stay in eSwatini, but said: ‘Critical engagements between stakeholders are still ongoing.’ She had earlier stated that the deportation was the ‘result of months of robust high-level engagements’ between the US and the southern African nation. Critics of the move say it is unacceptable for eSwatini to be treated as a ‘dumping ground’ for people considered unfit to live in the US. While the Trump administration’s mass deportations to the prisons of El Salvador have made headlines around the world, the White House has also been quietly attempting to strike agreements with a number of African countries to accept deportees originally from other nations.

Swaziland Liberation Movement (Swalimo) spokesperson Ingphile Dlamini says it viewed the US deportation flight carrying immigrants from different countries arriving in eSwatini with ‘profound concern and strong condemnation’. ‘The secretive nature of this arrangement, coupled with the eSwatini Government’s silence, is deeply troubling,’ Dlamini told Business Day. This after the US Homeland Security Department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said:  ‘A safe third country deportation flight to eSwatini has landed – this flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.’ Dlamini said that to accept individuals described as uniquely barbaric by the deporting nation, without public discourse or a clear plan, was reckless and potentially jeopardises the safety and stability of the already struggling nation. When asked how this agreement was reached between eSwatini and the US, Dlamini said: ‘This is precisely the critical question that remains unanswered, and it is a testament to the lack of democratic governance in eSwatini. There has been no official communication or public disclosure from the eSwatini Government regarding any bilateral agreement with the US to accept these third-country deportees.’ That agreement, if it existed, said Dlamini, was clearly reached without any form of public consultation, parliamentary oversight or transparency.

‘We suspect that such an agreement was negotiated in secrecy, potentially driven by the regime's desire for diplomatic favour, financial incentives or other forms of leverage from the US Government, rather than any genuine benefit to the Swazi people,’ he said. From the perspective of the Swazi people, ‘eSwatini gains nothing beneficial from this deal. Instead, it inherits significant risks and burdens'. Dlamini said the move sets a dangerous and alarming precedent for eSwatini. ‘It positions our country as a potential “dumping ground” for individuals deemed undesirable by other nations, particularly those whose home countries refuse repatriation. This could open the floodgates for similar arrangements with other countries, turning eSwatini into a recipient of international criminal elements.’ Swalimo called on the eSwatini Government to immediately disclose the details of any agreement with the US regarding the deportees, including the terms, conditions and any benefits received. 

Eight criminals were also deported this month to South Sudan, reports PBS. The deportees to South Sudan are citizens of Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan. They were held for weeks in a converted shipping container at a US military base in the nearby country of Djibouti until a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for them to be finally sent to South Sudan. The US also described them as violent criminals. Meanwhile, Nigeria says the US is ‘mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons’, report RFI. Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar made the claim during an interview with Channels Television. ‘It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners. We have enough problems of our own,’ he added. Tuggar also suggested the US motivation for threatening tariffs against the Brics political bloc – of which Nigeria is a member – was related to the issue of deportations. Trump has announced a 10% tariff on Nigerian goods exported to the US. Tuggar's comments followed a meeting between Trump and the leaders of five west African nations – Senegal, Liberia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Gabon – in the White House. His administration was pushing them to accept deportees from around the world, The Wall Street Journal reported. The President of Guinea-Bissau told reporters that Trump had raised the issue of deportations to third countries but ‘he didn't ask us to take immigrants back’.

According to an internal document seen by The Wall Street Journal, the African countries would have to agree not to return transferred asylum seekers ‘to their home country or country of former habitual residence until a final decision has been made’ on their claims for asylum in the US, reports the Daily Maverick. This arrangement appears similar to that between the former Conservative UK Government and Rwanda, but which was scrapped last year by the Labour Government, which said the deal had not deterred migrants to the UK. After Nigeria’s refusal it appears that Trump is turning to smaller, perhaps more pliable, countries to try to persuade them to accept asylum seekers or deportees. 

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