US deports more migrants to Africa

Four deportees, a Tanzanian, a Sudanese and two Somalis, have arrived in Eswatini, the government has said

Eswatini has received a third batch of migrants deported from the United States, despite the African Union’s concerns that Western governments have been shifting their migration and asylum burdens onto the continent.

The latest group of four brings the number of deportees sent to the southern African nation to at least 19 since July, after it struck a controversial agreement with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

“Of the four individuals, one is originally from Tanzania, the other from Sudan, and two are from Somalia,” the Eswatini government said on Thursday, adding that efforts to return them to their countries of origin were underway.

The transfers are part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown, after the US Supreme Court lifted restrictions on deporting migrants to countries with which they have no ties.

Since returning to office last year, Trump has reinstated a string of hardline immigration measures, making good on campaign pledges to reverse what he called the “open border” policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Cameroon and South Sudan have also agreed to accept foreign deportees from the US.

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Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, received its first batch of third-country deportees in July. The US Department of Homeland Security described them as five “uniquely barbaric criminals” from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen. A second group arrived in October, bringing the total to 15 before the latest deportations.

The Kingdom has confirmed receiving $5.1 million from Washington under the deal, which allows it to host third-country nationals pending their eventual repatriation to their countries of origin.

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The arrangement has also sparked protests in Eswatini, with human rights lawyers saying several deportees who had already completed their US sentences were being held in a maximum-security prison in the tiny landlocked country, with restricted access, while awaiting repatriation.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, an AU body, warned late last year that such accords could expose migrants to heightened risks of rights violations.

READ MORE: Eswatini received over $5mn from US to accept deportees – official

On Thursday, Eswatini’s government said it remained committed “to ensuring that the rights and dignity of the third-country nationals are upheld while they remain in the country.”