The people in detention have committed no crime [in Eswatini] and continue to undergo various human rights violations. They are being held indefinitely. They're totally frustrated with the situation. They just want to go back—some of them home, some of them to the US.
The world's largest pencil maker has accused the Costa Rican government of misusing an old factory that the German manufacturer donated for humanitarian purposes by detaining asylum seekers there who were deported from the US by the Trump administration last year. Faber-Castell produces more than 2bn wooden pencils a year worldwide and used to have a factory in the southern part of Costa Rica, bordering Panama and supplied by trees cultivated in the region.
Some of those being deported held valid US residency permits, he said, but were nonetheless included on the deportation list, with their consent obtained for repatriation. The confirmation comes after the New York Times, citing unnamed officials in Tehran, said a plane carrying around 100 Iranians left Louisiana late on September 29 and was set to arrive in Iran via Qatar the following day.
