A group of 10 migrants deported from the United States arrived early Monday in the African nation of Eswatini, authorities there said.
They are the latest of more than 40 deportees sent to Africa since July after the Trump administration struck largely secretive agreements with at least five nations there to take migrants under the new third-country deportation program that rights groups and others have protested.
A lawyer for two of the latest deportees told The Associated Press earlier on Monday that their flight had arrived in the southern African kingdom after departing from Alexandria, Louisiana, and stopping in Puerto Rico, Senegal and Angola.
Tin Thanh Nguyen, the U.S.-based lawyer, said he represents two Vietnamese nationals who were on the flight. He said they had been held at the Alexandria Staging Facility immigration detention center in Louisiana. Nguyen said he tracked their flight with help from rights group Human Rights First.
The Eswatini government confirmed in a statement that 10 deportees had arrived and “have been securely accommodated in one of the country’s correctional facilities.” It didn’t name them, give details on their nationalities or say where they are being held. It said they were “in good health and undergoing admission processes.”
Four men from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen who were deported to Eswatini in mid-July have been held in the country’s maximum-security Matsapha prison without charge for nearly three months, their lawyers have said. Nguyen represents two of those men.
The U.S. said the men sent to Eswatini in July were convicted criminals who had deportation orders. A Jamaican man in that first group was repatriated to his home country last month.
After the arrival of the latest deportees, the Eswatini government said it “remains committed to the humane treatment of all persons in its custody.”
The four men have been allowed to make phone calls to their families and lawyers in the U.S. However, authorities haven’t allowed an Eswatini-based lawyer to visit them. The lawyer won a court ruling on Friday granting him access but the government immediately appealed, blocking him from visiting them.
U.S. authorities have referred questions over the men’s treatment to officials in Eswatini, a small kingdom bordering South Africa where the king holds absolute power and has been accused of clamping down on pro-democracy movements.
Few details of the deportation deals struck between the U.S. and African countries have been released, but international rights group Human Rights Watch has said it has seen documents that show the U.S. will pay Eswatini $5.1 million as part of an agreement to take up to 160 deportees.
The U.S. has said it wants to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Eswatini.
Rights groups have criticized the deportation program for sending migrants to countries where they will likely be denied due process.
The U.S. has also sent deportees to South Sudan, Rwanda and Ghana and has an agreement with Uganda, though no deportations there have been announced.
Six deportees are still detained in an unspecified facility in South Sudan, while Rwanda hasn’t said where it is holding seven deportees. Eleven of the 14 deportees sent to Ghana are suing the government there for holding them in what they described as terrible conditions at a military camp on the outskirts of the capital, Accra.
By Agencies
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