Eswatini Court Grants Deportees Legal Access
Analysis based on 9 articles · First reported Apr 10, 2026 · Last updated Apr 11, 2026
The ruling by Eswatini's Supreme Court, while primarily a human rights issue, highlights the financial arrangements between the United States and several African nations for deportation programs. This could lead to increased scrutiny of these deals, potentially affecting future agreements and the reputations of involved governments.
Eswatini's Supreme Court has ruled that four men, deported from the United States under the Trump administration's third-country program, can finally meet with a lawyer after being denied in-person legal counsel for nine months. The men, originally from Cuba, Yemen, Laos, and Vietnam, were held at a maximum-security prison in Eswatini. The Eswatini government had appealed a lower court's decision to allow legal access, arguing the deportees had no right to counsel as they were not charged with a crime in Eswatini. This ruling comes amid criticism of the United States' program, which pays countries like Eswatini ($5.1 million) and Rwanda ($7.5 million) to accept deportees, raising concerns about human rights violations and the secrecy surrounding these deals. United States===United States Senate Democrats have questioned payments, particularly to Equatorial Guinea, due to corruption allegations.
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