It began with threats of US visa bans on a swathe of African nations. Then Washington started to scatter migrants from all over the world to various corners of the continent, often with cash sweeteners for their governments.
Cambodian Pheap Rom, 43, ended up in a notorious high-security prison in tiny Eswatini, which is run with an iron fist by King Mswati III. “I didn’t understand why I was being expelled to Africa since I’m Cambodian,” he told AFP.
Others were sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda; others still dropped off the radar after being sent to war-torn South Sudan.
The United States is using visa bans and restrictions on African countries to strongarm them into taking people from third countries as part of Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, two former State Department officials told AFP.
Lawyers say deportees have been thrown into a “legal black hole”, held without charge in countries where they have no ties and few if any rights.
