GOVERNMENT is exploring alternative accommodation for Third-Country Nationals (TCNs) brought into Eswatini under an agreement with the United States.
Acting Government Spokesperson Thabile Mdluli confirmed that an alternative accommodation arrangement was being explored in response to frequently asked questions about the individuals’ stay in the country.
Currently, the TCNs are accommodated at Matsapha Correctional Centre. The kingdom has so far received 31 of the 160 individuals it agreed to host under the programme.
Explaining why the individuals were placed at a correctional facility if they were not prisoners, Mdluli said the facility provided an existing secure environment and the necessary infrastructure for controlled accommodation.
However, she emphasised that their presence at the facility should not be interpreted as meaning they were serving criminal sentences under the country’s law.
Mdluli said government had a responsibility to ensure the security of both the individuals and the kingdom while they were temporarily in the country. She further clarified that the TCNs were not being held as prisoners serving sentences in the country, but were accommodated in secure facilities while their status and repatriation arrangements were being managed.
According to Mdluli, the use of secure facilities was intended to ensure appropriate security and controlled accommodation while enabling the country to meet its obligations towards the individuals.
She also addressed questions about whether the TCNs were criminals, explaining that they were not necessarily so, although some might have served sentences in the United States in the past.
Mdluli said the circumstances of the individuals were not identical and that the United States determined the immigration and removal status of those transferred from its jurisdiction.
On why the individuals were not sent directly to their countries of origin, Mdluli explained that their immediate repatriation was not feasible.
She said the kingdom’s role was to assist the US government in reuniting them with their families in their respective countries of origin.
The arrangement has attracted attention over the conditions under which the individuals are accommodated, particularly their confinement at a correctional facility.
Their local lawyer who is also a human rights defender, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, previously said the TCNs’ biggest concern was remaining at a correctional facility despite not being criminals.
However, he said they appeared to be in good health and were living under acceptable conditions.
While in the country, the individuals are allowed to prepare their own meals in addition to those provided by the State. They also have access to Wi-Fi, receive a monthly allowance of E500 and are permitted to go shopping outside the facility.
In this regard, Mdluli explained that their movements remained subject to arrangements governing their temporary stay in the country and the security requirements of the programme.
The kingdom’s current accommodation arrangement differ from those reported in some other countries that have received third-country nationals deported from the United States.
In Equatorial Guinea, for example, authorities reportedly accommodated deportees in a hotel while processing their cases. Some were eventually returned to their countries of origin after asylum was deemed unavailable under the country’s system.
