Eswatini court rules first Trump deportees in jail have right to lawyer

By Tim Cocks

JOHANNESBURG, April 10 (Reuters) – A court in Eswatini has ruled that the first five migrants the Trump administration sent to the African kingdom have a right to a lawyer, after they were denied legal representation on their transfer from the U.S. to a Swazi jail in July.

The court rejected a government argument that the detainees had not specifically requested the human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi represent them. Nhlabatsi has been trying to fight the migrants’ case without access to them.

“There can be no real harm in granting the Respondent access to the detainees,” the three judges ruled in a decision reviewed by Reuters. 

“If they do not wish to see the Respondent (they can) tell this to the Respondent to his face,” they said. 

The detainees are among at least 19 third-country migrants – from various countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas – that Trump’s administration deported to Eswatini as part of its crackdown on immigration. Other countries have also hosted migrants deported from the U.S.

The judgment only applies to the first five arrivals, as the challenge was first launched on their behalf, although it could set a precedent for the others. Eswatini, an absolute monarchy ruled by King Mswati III, has released only two of the detainees so far, a Jamaican man last year and a Cambodian last month.

Lawyers in Eswatini and the U.S. have challenged the legality of the $5.1 million deal between the two countries, which has resulted in deportees being incarcerated in the southern African nation despite having already served sentences for crimes committed on U.S. soil.

The high court last month threw out a case filed by a local human rights lawyer that challenged the deal itself, though the lawyer has appealed.    

(Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Kate Mayberry)