US sends another ‘third-country’ deportation flight to Eswatini

The United States has sent a second so-called “third-country” deportation flight to the tiny Southern African nation of Eswatini, shrugging off human rights concerns.

Eswatini’s government confirmed on Monday it had received 10 deportees from the US who were not nationals of the kingdom. That came after five other deportees from the US were sent to Eswatini in July.

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The White House confirmed the deportations on Monday, saying the individuals had committed serious crimes.

Neither the US nor Eswatini confirmed the nationalities of the individuals who arrived on Monday. However, US-based immigration lawyer Tin Thanh Nguyen said they included three people from Vietnam, one from the Philippines, and one from Cambodia.

Rights groups have condemned the treatment of the first group of deportees sent to Eswatini — which included individuals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen — saying they were kept in solitary confinement and not given access to lawyers.

Nguyen said he was representing two of those who arrived on Monday and two others previously sent to Eswatini, but he remained unable to speak with any of them.

“I cannot call them. I cannot email them. I cannot communicate through local counsel because the Eswatini government blocks all attorney access,” he told the Reuters news agency in a statement.

Amid its mass deportation push, the Trump administration has increasingly relied on sending deportees to third countries when it cannot legally send them to their homeland.

Rights advocates have challenged the practice, fearing it can leave those expelled stranded in countries where they do not speak the language and may not be afforded due process.

The Trump administration has also sent “third-country” deportees to South Sudan, Ghana, and Rwanda.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the latest group of deportees sent to Eswatini had been convicted of “heinous crimes”, including murder and rape.

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

Activists in Eswatini, a small mountain kingdom bordering South Africa, have also condemned the government’s secretive deal with the US. They have launched a legal challenge in hopes of scuttling the agreement.

For its part, Eswatini’s correctional services department has maintained that it is “committed to the humane treatment of all persons in its custody”.

The department said the individuals would be kept in correctional facilities until they could be repatriated to their home countries.