Eswatini Court Says Trump Deportees in Jail Have Right to Lawyer
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A court in Eswatini has ruled that the first five migrants sent there by the Trump administration have a right to a lawyer, after they were denied legal representation following their transfer from the United States to a Swazi jail in July. The ruling comes as legal challenges continue over the $5.1 million deportation deal between Eswatini and the U.S.
The court rejected a government argument that the detainees had not specifically requested human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi to represent them. The judges said there could be no real harm in allowing him access to the detainees and that, if they did not want to see him, they could say so directly.
The case involves at least 19 third-country migrants from Africa, Asia and the Americas who were deported to Eswatini as part of Washington’s crackdown on immigration. The judgment applies only to the first five arrivals, although it could set a precedent for the others.
Eswatini authorities have released only two of the detainees so far, a Jamaican man last year and a Cambodian man last month. Lawyers in Eswatini and the U.S. have challenged the legality of the agreement, though the country’s high court last month dismissed a separate case targeting the deal itself.
