WeeklySA_AdminOUTRAGE: Uproar as a confidential agreement between the Trump administration and kingdom’s authorities to send more criminals is revealed…
By WSAM Reporters
New plans to deport from the United States 150 more criminals – some linked to terrorist groups – to eSwatini have come into the open, triggering tensions within the kingdom’s Cabinet, Swaziland News reported this week.
Kept under wraps until this week, the secret plans were – according to the publication – uncovered by the kingdom’s Attorney-General Sifiso Khumalo who shocked Ministers on Tuesday morning at the kingdom’s Cabinet meeting when he told Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini that he had retrieved ‘the dumping of dangerous criminals’ agreement he (Dlamini) secretly signed with the United States without consulting the Office of the Attorney-General (AG).
The drama followed an exclusive Swaziland News report revealing that the Attorney General had been slamming the Prime Minister for the past two weeks over the story of the deported criminals which had been dominating news in the kingdom, attracting even the attention of the international media.
“I have the agreement now,” the Attorney General had told the Cabinet meeting, but the PM dismissed his comments saying; “There’s no way you can have that agreement, it’s highly confidential between me and the United States”.
After the AG produced the agreement, the Prime Minister was visibly shocked and, he subsequently adjourned the meeting, saying he was rushing somewhere and, never came back to continue with the Cabinet meeting, according to Swaziland News report.
The agreement reportedly binds eSwatini to accept more dangerous criminals from the US, some who are linked to known terrorists groups, with the Trump administration committing to pay the kingdom for accepting the dangerous criminals rejected by their respective countries, according to Swaziland News report.
Following the furore, King Mswati’s spokesperson Percy Simelane subsequently told Swaziland News that, the King was never involved in the signing of the agreement, referring comments to the Cabinet particularly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Earlier this month, the Donald Trump administration deported five migrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen to the small Southern African nation of eSwatini. South Africa and Nigeria have refused the US request to receive deportees, with the West African country revealing that the Trump administration was pressuring several African nations to accept foreign nationals whom it wanted to deport.
Acting eSwatini government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli released a statement clarifying the issue, she said such “agreements are done with meticulous care” and consideration.
“The Kingdom of Eswatini and the United States of America have enjoyed fruitful bilateral relations spanning over five decades. As such, every agreement entered into is done with meticulous care and consideration, putting the interests of both Nations at the forefront”, reads the Government statement to Swaziland News, in part.
But, according to the Swaziland News report, even on this particular statement, the AG was allegedly not consulted as he expressed this on the Cabinet Whatsap group a fortnight ago, before the meeting that took place on Tuesday this week.
“All agreements, treaties, conventions or documents by whatever name called cannot be concluded without the Attorney General in terms of Section 77 of the Constitution”, the Attorney General wrote in the Cabinet Whatsap Group communication leaked to Swaziland News editor Zweli Martin Dlamini.
eSwatini, formerly Swaziland, is landlocked by South Africa and Mozambique and has a population of about 1.2 million. It is Africa’s last absolute monarchy and has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986.
Last Friday, a coalition of women’s rights organisations in the kingdom delivered a petition to the United States Embassy, demanding the immediate reassessment of its administration deportation policy.
Among four key demands, according to a Independent News eSwatini report, the women also called for the urgent recall of “the deported criminals which were sent without proper consultation with citizens,” a coordinated dialogue and stopping the “forcing” of migrants into the country.
The petition the circumstances under which five individuals were deported to the Kingdom were concerning.
The petition, submitted under the banner of several women-led movements and civil society groups, calls for clarity and accountability from both the United States and eSwatini governments over the legal status and treatment of the deported individuals.
Key concerns outlined in the petition included whether the individuals were informed of their removal to eSwatini and whether they were granted access to consular support from their home countries, an important right in any cross-border detention or deportation process.
The petitioners also questioned who within the eSwatini government authorised the acceptance of the individuals and under what legal framework this was carried out. They called on authorities to confirm whether valid detention warrants or certificates of detention, as required by the kingdom’s Immigration Act, were issued.
If there is no such legal basis, the petition asks, under what authority are they currently being held? The statement warns that any alternative justification for their continued detention may violate the Correctional Services Act No. 13 of 2017 and pose a threat to eSwatini’s rule of law.
In an earlier statement last week, eSwatini government spokesman Thabile Mdluli told The Guardian newspaper that the kingdom’s government estimated the five men would be held for about 12 months, adding: “It could be slightly less or slightly more.”
She further indicated that eSwatini was ready to receive more deportees, depending on the availability of facilities and negotiations with the US, which had also deported eight people to South Sudan after holding them for weeks in a shipping container in Djibouti, and more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador.
In a statement recently, eSwatini’s largest opposition party, the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), said: “Pudemo vehemently condemns the treacherous and reckless decision by King Mswati III’s regime to allow the United States of America to dump its most dangerous criminals on Swazi soil.
“This is not diplomacy but human trafficking disguised as a deportation deal. It is an insult to all Emaswati who value peace, security, and the sanctity of our homeland.” – Additional reporting by The Guardian, Weekly SA Mirror, Independent News eSwatini
