Eswatini has received 11 additional migrants deported from the United States, marking the latest transfers under the Trump administration’s controversial third-country deportation program that relocates migrants to countries other than their own. According to a US immigration attorney familiar with several of the cases, at least two of the newly arrived deportees reportedly had legal protections that rights advocates argue should have prevented their removal from the United States. The latest arrivals bring the number of migrants transferred from the US to Eswatini since July 2025 to 30 under a bilateral agreement between Washington and the southern African kingdom. While two deportees, a Jamaican and a Cambodian national have since been repatriated to their home countries, 17 others remain detained without charge in a high-security prison, according to reports. The nationalities of the latest group have not yet been disclosed.
A government source said officials travelled to Eswatini’s main international airport on Wednesday to receive and process the new arrivals. Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy under Mswati III, acknowledged last year that it received approximately US$5.1 million from the United States as part of the arrangement to accept deportees. The deportation program has drawn widespread criticism from human rights organizations. Amnesty International has described the scheme as “deeply abusive,” citing concerns over the indefinite detention of migrants and the human rights record of Eswatini’s government.
The Trump administration has defended its expanded deportation policy, arguing that while US law prohibits returning some migrants to countries where they could face persecution, it allows their transfer to third countries willing to accept them. Countries participating in the program have adopted different approaches. While Eswatini has continued to detain many deportees, countries such as Ghana have reportedly facilitated their onward return to their countries of origin. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had not commented on the latest deportations at the time of publication.
