MANZINI, Eswatini — A Jamaican man who was among five migrants deported by the United States to Eswatini in Africa has been repatriated to his home country, Eswatini authorities  has reported,

Orville Etoria was held in a maximum-security prison in Eswatini for more than two months without charges or access to legal counsel, his lawyers have said, accusing the U.S. of deporting him there unlawfully in mid-July.

The lawyers had said the U.S. sent him to the southern African nation under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program even though Jamaica was willing to take him back. They alleged Etoria and the four other men were then repeatedly denied visits by a lawyer while they were held at the prison.

Etoria was repatriated on Sunday with the assistance of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, Thabile Mdluli, the Eswatini government’s acting spokesperson, said in a statement.

She said there were “engagements” with the other four men from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen to have them sent home.

The five men were described as dangerous criminals by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It said they had been sent to Eswatini because their home countries refused to take them back.

.The men had been convicted of serious crimes including murder and child rape, and all were in the U.S. illegally and had deportation orders, DHS said. Their lawyers said they had all completed their criminal sentences but were sent overseas to be held in another prison without charges or due process.

The third-country program has been criticized by lawyers and human rights experts, who say it results in sending migrants to countries with they have no ties and where they could be denied their legal rights by repressive governments.

A Mexican man was repatriated this month after spending two months detained in an unspecified location in South Sudan. He was among several deportees held for weeks before that at a U.S. military base in Djibouti.

#Jamaica #HumanRights #Deportation #Eswatini #ImmigrationJustice #UN #IOM #BlackExcellence #CaribbeanNews