Eswatini receives four more third-country deportees from US, government says
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Activists protesting in Mbabane in August 2025 against the deportation agreement between the US and Eswatini.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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- Eswatini received four more deportees from the US on March 12, bringing the total to at least 19 under a deal with the Trump administration.
- The US paid Eswatini US$5.1 million to accept deportees from various countries, including Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Cuba.
- Deportees remain imprisoned in Eswatini despite serving US sentences; human rights lawyers challenged the deal, but their case was dismissed.
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JOHANNESBURG - Eswatini said it had received four more third-country deportees from the United States on March 12, bringing the total to at least 19 as the Trump administration continued its crackdown on immigration.
Two of the fresh deportees were from Somalia, one was from Sudan and one was from Tanzania.
Previous deportees, arriving in July 2025, included nationals of Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and Yemen.
A lawyer for some of that earlier group, Ms Alma David, told Reuters a Cambodian man, Mr Pheap Rom, was due to be repatriated, the second to be released after another man was sent back to Jamaica in 2025.
US President Donald Trump’s administration paid the small southern African country US$5.1 million (S$6.5 million) to receive them.
“In line with this agreement... the nation has received another cohort of four third-country nationals from the United States,” said the statement by the government of Eswatini, an absolute monarchy ruled by King Mswati III.
Eswatini is one of several African countries to have made such secretive deals. The high court in February threw out a case filed by local human rights lawyers that challenged it, though they have appealed.
Despite having served their sentences for crimes on US soil, the remainder are still in prison in Eswatini.
“Intensive engagements with the respective countries of origin... are ongoing,” the statement said. REUTERS
