The Tanggol Migrante Movement (TMM) condemned the Philippine embassy for its negligence and dereliction of duty to stop the illegal deportation of a Filipino migrant to Eswatini (formerly Swaziland, a country in South Africa) on October 6. The Filipino migrant was among 10 individuals deported to that country.
The Philippine embassy absolved itself and even denied the report. It said the victim had no documents proving the deportee was Filipino. The embassy insisted that the victim should first return to the Philippines and file a “citizenship” claim, which ICE detention made impossible.
According to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-USA, the victim was born in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and an American father.
“How dare the embassy try to wash its hands of responsibility when it was the Philippine government’s own bureaucratic, ineffective processes and diplomatic failures that put the now-deported migrant in limbo in the first place,” the group angrily stated.
It added that it was insulting that the embassy determines who is Filipino and who is not, and who is worthy of assistance, when the Philippine government-inflicted poverty forces Filipinos to work abroad.
Furthermore, the deportation to the Matsapha Correctional Centre in Eswatini, a facility known for overcrowding and human rights violations, could be troubling precedent. Filipino migrants can now be deported to countries other than the Philippines simply because they lack basic documents. Filipinos who have lost refugee status and cannot return home to the Philippines are also vulnerable to deportation to third party countries.
