A judge in Eswatini has failed to appear for a court hearing about the continued detention of four men deported there by the United States.

The case, scheduled for Thursday, was brought by several non-profit organisations that have challenged the legality of holding the men from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen without charges.

The four were sent to Eswatini in mid-July as part of President Donald Trump’s push for the mass deportation of migrants and asylum seekers from the US.

Trump has controversially used so-called third countries to accept non-citizen deportees whose home countries are elsewhere.

Such “third countries” have included at least four African nations : Eswatini, South Sudan , Ghana and Rwanda . More than 30 people have been deported from the US to Africa since July

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