Eswatini receives 11 more US deportees

Eswatini's government said it received 11 new deportees from the United States on Wednesday, most of them from African countries.

The government said the group was flown into Eswatini on two planes and was the fourth batch to arrive since July last year under a deal with Washington. A video shared with AFP showed the deportees arriving at the heavily guarded Matsapha Correctional Centre.

Eswatini has already taken in 19 men under US agreements with African countries to accept migrants through a third-country deportation programme linked to President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Two of those men, a Jamaican and a Cambodian, have been repatriated, while 17 remain in the high-security prison, held without charge.

Amnesty International has called the deportation scheme deeply abusive. Eswatini says the deportees are in the country temporarily and are expected to be returned to their countries of origin.

The government confirmed last year that it had received about $5.1 million from the United States to accept 160 deportees, with the funds intended to strengthen border and migration management capacity.