Africa-Press. Amnesty International condemned the U.S. deportation of 11 individuals to Eswatini, describing the operation as “illegal.” This marks the fourth such transfer to the southern African kingdom since July 2025, according to a local source.
Flavia Mwangovya, the regional deputy director for East and Southern Africa, stated in a statement, “Eswatini authorities must stop facilitating these illegal transfers,” considering the deportation “an integral part of Trump’s harsh and racist anti-immigrant policies.”
The organization urged Washington to “immediately end this illegal policy and dismantle the machinery of mass detention and deportation,” emphasizing that it has documented serious human rights consequences of these transfers, including arbitrary detention, restricted access to lawyers, denial of due process, and the risk of refoulement to other countries.
It stressed that “countries cannot outsource their human rights obligations” and that international law requires providing every individual the opportunity to contest their transfer before it is executed.
Arrival Under Heavy Guard
The group arrived last Wednesday on two flights from the United States, and a video obtained by a local source showed the deportees arriving at the high-security Matsapha Correctional Facility near the international airport.
The acting spokesperson for the Eswatini government confirmed that the fourth group of “third-country nationals” arrived “as part of the existing bilateral arrangement with the U.S.,” noting that most of them “are from African countries,” and that their basic rights “will be respected and protected according to the kingdom’s laws and international obligations” during their temporary stay. Local sources reported that 10 members of the group are from African countries and one from South America.
This new batch has raised the total number of individuals deported by Washington to Eswatini since July 2025 to around 30, with two of them, one Jamaican and the other Cambodian, returned to their home countries, while 17 previous arrivals remain detained without charges, according to a local source. The government has not disclosed the location of the new arrivals’ detention or the timelines for resolving their situations, as reported by a local news outlet.
Secret Agreement and Legal Challenges
According to documents obtained by Amnesty under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, Eswatini agreed to receive up to 160 deportees in exchange for approximately $5.1 million to enhance its border and immigration management capabilities, without either government publishing the text of the agreement.
The program extends beyond Eswatini, as Amnesty states that at least 13 African countries have received or agreed to receive deportees from the U.S. A local source reported that Rwanda has signed a similar agreement worth $7.5 million covering 250 individuals, and other deportees have been sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan.
The arrangement faces legal challenges on multiple fronts. In December 2025, a coalition of human rights organizations and lawyers filed a complaint with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights regarding the prolonged detention of three deportees, and a lawsuit filed by activists in Eswatini challenging the agreement is still pending in the courts.
In the United States, a federal court in Massachusetts ruled in February that the policy of deportation to a third country without actual notice and a genuine opportunity to seek protection is illegal, according to a local news outlet, while the Eswatini government maintains that the presence of the deportees on its territory is temporary and that it intends to return them to their home countries.
