J’can repatriated from Eswatini after 2 months

A Jamaican man who was among five migrants deported by the United States to Eswatini in Africa has been repatriated to his home country, Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith confirmed last night.

Orville Etoria was held in a maximum-security prison in Eswatini for more than two months without charges or access to legal counsel, his lawyers have said, accusing the United States of deporting him there unlawfully in mid-July.

The lawyers had said the US sent him to the southern African nation under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation programme even though Jamaica was willing to take him back. They alleged Etoria and the four other men were then repeatedly denied visits by a lawyer while they were held at the prison.

Etoria was repatriated on Sunday with the assistance of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).

“We are pleased to welcome home Mr Etoria,” Johnson Smith said in a statement to The Gleaner. “We trust the Jamaican public understands and joins the Government in respecting his desire for a quiet return. We reaffirm that the well-being of Jamaicans overseas is a constant priority for the Government, and note that this case is another example of the importance of international cooperation and the role of our diplomatic network in protecting the rights of Jamaican nationals abroad.”

She expressed gratitude to the government of Eswatini for its cooperation in the matter and for the duty of care it exercised.

“We also thank the IOM for its direct support and commend our High Commission in Pretoria for their hands-on engagement. Together, our combined efforts ensured Mr. Etoria’s safe return,” said the minister.

The five men were described as dangerous criminals by the US Department of Homeland Security. It said they had been sent to Eswatini because their home countries refused to take them back.

Eswatini, in an apparent contradiction of that, said they were only there in transit and would be sent home.

The five men had been convicted of serious crimes, including murder and child rape, and all were in the US illegally and had deportation orders, the US Department of Homeland Security said. Their lawyers said they had all completed their criminal sentences but were sent overseas to be held in another prison without charges or due process.

– Part reporting from The Associated Press