Three men of Bangladeshi origin have been detained for two months on suspicion that they were smuggled by their compatriots into eSwatini.
The trio of Momir Hossain, Ekram Hossain and Lazzad Mai are currently kept at an undisclosed place while the suspected traffickers; Mohammed Ali Jinnah aged 52 and his wife Jesmine Jinnah aged 41 were arrested, charged and released on bail fixed at $7 140.
The detained men on Wednesday filed an urgent application at the High Court of eSwatini, seeking an order to be released from the safe house where they have lived since May 2019 when the detention case against their compatriots went to court for the first time.
The court objected to the application pending finalisation of the case, on the basis that it was not clear why and how they had arrived into the country, despite that they claimed to have been employed by the Jinnah family as shop assistants.
The police learnt about the trio when they reported their said employer to the police for allegedly not paying up their salaries for February, March and April 2019.
BM/as/APA