Four men deported by the United States to Eswatini, who were denied in-person legal counsel for nine months while detained in a maximum security prison, have won the right to see a local lawyer, the country's supreme court has ruled.
The men, from Cambodia, Cuba, Vietnam and Yemen, were sent to the southern African kingdom in July last year as part of the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up deportations, despite having no connection to the country. The US government had labelled them dangerous criminals, but their lawyers said the men had already served sentences for crimes committed in America.
The supreme court rejected the government's argument that the inmates had shown no interest in meeting human rights lawyer Sibusiso Magnificent Nhlabatsi, ruling that allowing access would cause no harm and that the detainees could refuse to see him if they wished. Of the first five deportees, one was repatriated to Jamaica in September, while another 10 arrived in October, with one sent back to Cambodia in March and a further four last month.
Alma David, a US lawyer for several of the men, said the nine-month legal battle to obtain permission for her clients to meet a local lawyer spoke volumes about how hard the Eswatini government was fighting to deny them basic rights. The Eswatini government spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli, did not respond to a request for comment but has previously stated that the country has made every reasonable effort to accommodate the deportees in conditions respecting their fundamental rights.
The US has deported dozens of people to third countries they do not originate from, including Ghana, South Sudan and Uganda, a practice human rights lawyers and NGOs have labelled as a form of human trafficking. A US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson dismissed such allegations as 'insane', insisting the Trump administration was using all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history.
