US Sends More ‘Third-Country’ Deportees to Eswatini Amid Human Rights Concerns

The United States has sent a second flight carrying deportees to the small southern African kingdom of Eswatini, deepening criticism over Washington’s growing reliance on so-called third-country transfers.

Eswatini’s government confirmed on Monday that 10 people were flown in from the US despite not being citizens of the country. It follows a July transfer of five deportees, none of whom were Eswatini nationals.

The White House said the deportees had been convicted of serious crimes, but did not release their nationalities.
US immigration lawyer Tin Thanh Nguyen, however, told Reuters that the group included three Vietnamese nationals, as well as one person each from the Philippines and Cambodia.

Rights groups allege secret detentions

Human rights advocates say earlier deportees sent to Eswatini, from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen, were held in solitary confinement and denied access to lawyers.

Nguyen, who represents several of the detainees, said he has been unable to contact them since their arrival.

“I cannot call them. I cannot email them. I cannot communicate through local counsel because the Eswatini government blocks all attorney access,” he said.

The Trump administration has increasingly turned to third-country deportations when legal or diplomatic barriers prevent returning individuals to their countries of origin.

Eswatini defends agreement

Activists in Eswatini have filed a legal challenge against what they call a “secretive deal” with Washington.
The country’s correctional services department, however, insists it remains “committed to the humane treatment of all persons in its custody.”

Authorities said the deportees would remain in detention “until arrangements are made for repatriation to their home countries.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended the transfers, saying the deportees were “convicted of heinous crimes, including murder and rape.”

“They do not belong in the United States,” she said.

Growing pattern

Eswatini joins South Sudan, Ghana, and Rwanda as destinations for the US’s third-country deportation programme — a policy condemned by rights groups as legally dubious and potentially dangerous for those sent to nations where they lack citizenship, support networks, or language familiarity.