Credit: Post Bulletin

Ninety-two Somalis, including former Mayo Clinic employee Abdoulmalik Ibrahim, sat bound and shackled on an airplane for nearly two days, some urinating on themselves, during a botched U.S. deportation attempt, a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States says.

U.S. immigration agents "kicked, struck, choked and dragged detainees" during the journey that began Dec. 7, the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami says. Some of the Somalis were put in straitjackets. The lawsuits seeks to prevent their deportation, and a hearing is set for Jan. 2.

"It's really difficult to relate, because you're got the horrid conditions on the plane, 48 hours in shackles," said Kim Hunter, the Twin Cities immigration attorney presenting Ibrahim. It "was like a slave ship going away across the Atlantic."