The government of Eswatini has confirmed it is holding five third-country nationals deported from the United States under a longstanding agreement initiated during President Donald Trump’s administration. The individuals are currently being housed in isolated units within the country’s correctional facilities, the government said on Wednesday.
The deportees — convicted criminals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen — arrived on a US deportation flight earlier this week. According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the men were removed after their home countries refused to take them back. This followed a recent US Supreme Court ruling that lifted restrictions on deporting migrants to nations other than their own.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin explained on social media that the decision was necessary to ensure the removal of individuals with criminal convictions who had exhausted all legal options in the United States.
In a statement responding to growing domestic concerns, Eswatini’s acting government spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli, acknowledged the sensitivity of the situation. “Indeed, five inmates are currently housed in our correctional facilities in isolated units,” she confirmed, describing the transfers as “the result of months of robust high-level engagements” between Eswatini and the US.
Mdluli also clarified that the ultimate goal is not to keep the individuals in the kingdom permanently. She said Eswatini and the United States are working with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to arrange the deportees’ eventual transfer to their countries of origin.
Eswatini, a small landlocked monarchy in Southern Africa with a population of about 1.2 million, rarely features in high-level immigration or deportation agreements. The country is ruled by King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, who has held power since 1986.
The IOM has not yet commented on its role in the planned repatriations.
Melissa Enoch
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