The Eswatini government announced Thursday that it received four more deportees from “third countries” in the United States, as part of the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar deal with the small African nation.
Now, a total of 19 deportees from the United States have been sent to Eswatini when they come from other countries, amid the Trump administration’s continued anti-immigrant crackdown and changes in immigration policy.
A system for monitoring people transferred by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the form of a flight tracker, run by the advocacy group Human Rights First, tracked the deportation flight to Eswatini. The flight apparently took off from Phoenix, Arizona, and landed in Eswatini, southern Africa, around 11 p.m. ET on Wednesday night, according to ICE’s flight monitor.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Guardian.
Two of the deportees sent to Eswatini on Wednesday night were from Somalia, one from Sudan and the other from Tanzania, the government said. Authorities did not reveal identities or other details about them.
Last year, the Trump administration closed “third country” agreements with numerous countries around the world. The agreements allow countries, often after a payment from the United States, to accept deported immigrants who are not their citizens.
A recent congressional investigation found that the Trump administration paid more than $32 million to five foreign governments to accept several deportees.
“The Administration is carrying out questionable deals by making direct payments primarily to corrupt and unstable foreign governments with histories of public corruption, human rights abuses, and human trafficking,” reads the investigation, carried out by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Previous deportees to Eswatini, who arrived in July and October last year, included citizens of Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and Yemen. A lawyer for some members of that former group, Alma David, told Reuters that one Cambodian, Pheap Rom, should be repatriated to his home country. Rom would be the second person to be released from Eswatini custody after another man was sent back to Jamaica last year.
The Trump administration paid the small southern African country $5.1 million to receive deportees.
“In accordance with this agreement,” the Eswatini government said in a statement, “the nation has received another cohort of four third-country nationals from the United States.”
Eswatini is one of several African countries involved in third-country deportation agreements with the United States. Three men sent there last July filed a complaint against the Eswatini government with the African Union human rights body. They said his continued detention was an illegal violation of his rights, The Guardian reported. Last month, the Eswatini High Court dismissed a case brought by local human rights lawyers challenging it, although an appeal was filed.
Despite having served their sentences for crimes on American soil, the rest of the third-country deportees sent to Eswatini last year were still in prison.
Reuters contributed reporting
