A fourth group of people deported from the United States arrives in Eswatini

The United States deported a dozen people to Eswatini on Wednesday, according to an American immigration lawyer and local sources.

This is the latest deportation to the repressive southern African nation. Those deported were not from Eswatini, in accordance with the unprecedented “third country” agreement brokered by Washington that has led to people being sent from around the world to the country. An AFP investigation revealed that the United States offered multimillion-dollar deals and threatened visa restrictions to persuade countries to accept deportees, as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Alma David, a U.S. immigration lawyer familiar with some of the cases of those deported, said 11 people were sent to Eswatini, including at least two with legal protections that rights advocates say should shield them from deportation. A local source put the number at nine. Their nationalities were not known, but another source indicated that these details would be revealed during their registration tomorrow morning. Eswatini has already taken in 19 deportees since July 2025.

Two of them, a Jamaican and a Cambodian, have been repatriated, but 17 remain detained in a high-security prison without having been charged. A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, indicated that an official convoy had gone to the main international airport "to pick up and welcome newly deported Americans." ICE Flight Monitor, a tracking service affiliated with the nonprofit organization Human Rights First, identified two small planes that took off Tuesday from the southern U.S. state of Louisiana, refueled in Senegal, and then landed in Eswatini Wednesday afternoon. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not respond to a request for comment. – "Deeply abusive"

Eswatini, Africa's last absolute monarchy, confirmed last year that it had received approximately $5.1 million from the United States to host deportees. According to a document revealed by Human Rights Watch and reviewed by AFP, Eswatini agreed to accept 160 deportees in exchange for funds intended to strengthen its border and migration management capacity. Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986. His government has been accused of human rights abuses, and Amnesty International has called the deportation program "deeply abusive." During his second term, Donald Trump expanded the scope of those eligible for deportation, targeting those who had legal protections under previous administrations that allowed them to live and work in the United States for fear of persecution in their countries of origin. Washington argued that, from a legal standpoint, it was only prohibited from directly deporting these individuals to their countries of origin. While countries like Eswatini have indefinitely detained those deported by the United States, other countries, such as Ghana, quickly returned to their countries of origin the deportees they had taken in.