Eswatini receives 2 more US deportees under a controversial third-country deal

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Two migrants deported from the United States arrived in Eswatini, authorities in the southern African country said, under an agreement between the two countries that has drawn criticism from rights groups.

The two migrants are from Latin America, according to a government statement late Thursday which described the individuals as “third-party nationals” and said they arrived following consultations and agreements between the U.S. and Eswatini.

The pair are the fifth batch of deportees to be shipped from the U.S. to the landlocked African kingdom of Eswatini since the first group arrived in July 2025.

Some earlier deportees have since been repatriated. A Jamaican man was repatriated to his home country in September, while a Cambodian man was released in March for repatriation after spending five months detained in a maximum-security prison.

Under a series of often-secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to two dozen countries that aren’t their own, as it pushes ahead with its immigration crackdown, advocates say.

Immigration lawyers say the practice is being used as a legal loophole to indirectly return some asylum seekers to countries they fled.

An estimated 11 of those agreements are with African countries, including Rwanda, Ghana, Cameroon, Congo, Uganda, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic.

The Trump administration’s choice of African countries to strike deportation deals with and pay money to is also under scrutiny because many of the countries, including Eswatini, South Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, have notoriously repressive governments and poor human rights records.

Eswatini’s King Mswati III has long been accused of clamping down on pro-democracy movements, sometimes violently.

Liberia has become a focal point in the Trump administration’s expanding third-country deportation plan after agreeing to take up to 1,200 migrants — one of the largest numbers to date — and welcoming its first group this month.

In July this year, Jamaica’s government said two of its three citizens deported to the tiny kingdom have formally declined offers to be repatriated to the Caribbean nation.

The Eswatini government did not identify the two most recent deportees, disclose their nationalities, or say how long they would remain in the country.

Pro-democracy and civil rights groups have been strongly fighting Eswatini’s secret deal to accept third-country deportees from the U.S. through cross-border protests, lawsuits, and public opposition.

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