Responding to reports that 11 people removed by the United States arrived in Eswatini on 8 July, in what appears to be the fourth known transfer operation under the US-Eswatini third-country removal arrangement, Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said:
“For almost a year, Amnesty International has documented the serious human rights consequences of these transfers, including arbitrary detention, restrictions on access to lawyers, denial of due process and the risk of onward refoulement.
“States cannot outsource their human rights obligations. International law requires that everyone has the opportunity to challenge a transfer before it takes place. It also prohibits transferring people to countries where they face a real risk of serious human rights violations or onward refoulement. These removals, part and parcel of the Trump administration’s cruel and racist anti-immigrant policies, tear families apart and traumatise both individuals and communities.
“It is especially alarming that several people transferred under this arrangement had reportedly been granted protection under the Convention against Torture by the United States. This is consistent with a broader pattern documented by Amnesty International that in many cases persons removed to third countries in Africa had been granted protection by the US, including from torture. Protection against torture cannot be circumvented through third-country removal arrangements. The United States cannot “country shop” to be able to implement its racist mass deportation against people who have already been granted protection in the United States.
