Four men deported by the US to Eswatini and denied in-person legal counsel for nine months while detained in a maximum security prison have the right to see a local lawyer, Eswatini’s supreme court ruled.
The men, from Cambodia, Cuba, Vietnam and Yemen, were sent to the small southern African country, formerly known as Swaziland, in July despite having no connection to the country, as part of Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to ramp up deportations.
The US government had labelled the men dangerous criminals. Their lawyers said they had already served sentences for crimes committed in the US. Eswatini’s correctional services refused to let a local lawyer see the men, although they allowed them to make calls to their US lawyers, the lawyers said.
The court rejected the government’s argument that “the inmates persistently showed no interest” in meeting the human rights lawyer Sibusiso Magnificent Nhlabatsi, in a judgment handed down on Thursday.
The three judges ruled: “There can be no real harm in granting the respondent access to the detainees … it then will be up to the detainees, if they do not wish to see the respondent, to tell this to the respondent to his face.”
Of the first five deportees, one was repatriated to Jamaica in September. Another 10 arrived in Eswatini in October, one of whom was repatriated to Cambodia on 26 March, and a further four last month.
Alma David, a US lawyer for several of the men, said: “The fact that it took nearly nine months of litigation and a decision by the highest court of the land to obtain something as innocuous as permission for my clients to meet with a local lawyer speaks volumes about how hard the government of Eswatini is fighting to deny these men the most basic of rights.”
The Eswatini government spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Previously, she has said: “The government of the Kingdom of Eswatini has made every reasonable effort, in accordance with national laws and international obligations, to ensure that the third-country nationals received from the United States government are accommodated in conditions that respect their fundamental rights and human dignity.”
The US has deported dozens of people to third countries from which they do not originate, including Ghana, South Sudan and Uganda. Human rights lawyers and NGOs have labelled the deportations as a form of human trafficking.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said: “Allegations that sending criminal illegal aliens to third country’s [sic] is a form of ‘human trafficking’ is insane. The Trump administration is utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised.”
