END FORCED EVICTIONS

Sir,

Please allow me to inform you about recent activities of our Amnesty International group 1190, Germany. We have written letters on human rights concerns to authorities in China, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Iran, Vietnam, Turkey, Colombia, Israel, USA and Uzbekistan. Now, I would like to bring to your attention my deepest concerns about dozens of people, including 33 children, who were left homeless after their homes were demolished using bulldozers in the presence of 20 armed police officers. The families belong to the farming area of Embetseni in Malkerns Town.

Four homesteads consisting of 61 people, 33 of whom were children, were forcibly evicted from their homes in the farming area of Embetseni on April 9, 2018.

Representatives of a private farming company that owns the land, together with a sheriff of the High Court of Eswatini and armed police officers were present during the demolition of the homesteads.

They arrived in the morning and told the families to remove their belongings from their homes if they did not want them destroyed during the demolition. Afterwards, bulldozers demolished the four homesteads.

In violation of human rights standards, residents of the homesteads were not given adequate advance notice of the evictions, and were not provided with alternative housing, thus rendering them homeless and at risk of other human rights violations. The affected families were informed of an eviction order dated July 14, 2017 only a day before the eviction, on April 8, 2018, at a meeting they sought with the local police to address rumours of an imminent eviction.

On the first night after the eviction, about five members of one family slept in the open, another family spent the night at the local chief’s residence, while another was forced to seek shelter in a chicken shed. Others were accommodated at a local primary school.

The private farming company that owns the land occupied by the four homesteads has been involved in a legal battle with the residents since 2013, when the families filed a case in court arguing for recognition of their rights to the land on the grounds that they had been residing there since 1957. The company had applied to have the community evicted.

I call on the authorities to ensure that the forcibly evicted families are given adequate alternative housing as a matter of urgency in respect of their right to adequate housing. I urge the authorities to end forced evictions and ensure that evictions are carried out in strict compliance with international and regional human rights standards.

Friedhelm Kuhl   

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