3 men deported by US are being held in an African prison without charge, lawyers say

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Three men deported by the United States to Eswatini in July have been held in a maximum-security prison in the African nation for seven weeks without charge and with no access to legal counsel despite completing criminal sentences in the U.S., their lawyers said Tuesday.

The New York-based Legal Aid Society said it was representing one of the men, Jamaican national Orville Etoria, and that he had been “inexplicably” sent to Eswatini when his home country was willing to accept him back.

Etoria was the first of at least 20 deportees sent by the U.S. to various African nations in the last two months to be identified publicly. The deportations are part of the Trump administration’s largely secretive third-country program to crack down on immigration.

The 62-year-old Etoria was convicted of a serious crime in the U.S. in 1997 and was released from prison on parole in 2021, the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that Etoria had been convicted of murder.

The Legal Aid Society said the U.S. government had falsely claimed that Jamaica refused to accept him back. Homeland Security, when announcing the deportation of a total of five men to Eswatini in mid-July, claimed they were “so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”

Homeland Security said at the time the men were dangerous criminals from Jamaica, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen but didn’t identify them by name.

A lawyer representing the two other men, from Laos and Vietnam, said Tuesday his clients also served their criminal sentences in the U.S. and had “been released into the community.”

“Then, without warning and explanation from either the U.S. or Eswatini governments, they were arbitrarily arrested and sent to a country to which they have never ever been,” the lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said in a statement. He said the U.S. government was “orchestrating secretive third-country transfers with no meaningful legal process, resulting in indefinite detention.”

Homeland security said those two men had been convicted of charges including child rape and second-degree murder.

A third lawyer, Alma David, said she represented two men from Yemen and Cuba who are also held in Eswatini and were denied access to lawyers. She said she had been told by the head of the Eswatini prison that only the U.S. Embassy could grant access to the men.

“Since when does the U.S. Embassy have jurisdiction over Eswatini’s national prisons?” she said in a statement, adding the men weren’t told a reason for their detention, and no lawyer has been permitted to visit them.”

David said all five were being held in Eswatini’s main maximum-security prison indefinitely at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

Since July, the Trump administration has expanded its third-country deportation program and sent migrants to at least three African nations: South Sudan, Eswatini and Rwanda, and has a deal in principle with a fourth African country, Uganda.

Though no deportations to Uganda have been announced, the U.S. has said it wants to deport Kilma Abrego Garcia there. His case has been a flashpoint in U.S. President Donald Trump’s crackdown.

The deportation deals the U.S. has struck have been largely secretive.

Authorities in South Sudan have given little information on where eight men sent there in early July are being held or what their fate might be. They were also described by U.S. authorities as dangerous criminals from South Sudan, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar and Vietnam.

The five men in Eswatini are being held at the Matsapha Correctional Complex. It’s the same prison where Eswatini, which is ruled by a king as Africa’s last absolute monarchy, has imprisoned pro-democracy campaigners. Authorities said when the five men arrived in Eswatini that they would be held in solitary confinement.

Another seven migrants were deported by the U.S. to Rwanda in mid-August, Rwandan authorities said. They didn’t say where they are being held or give any information on their identities.

The deportations to Rwanda were kept secret at the time and only announced last week.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa