US deports about a dozen people to Eswatini

The United States deported about a dozen people to Eswatini on Wednesday, an American immigration lawyer and local sources told AFP, in the latest transfer under a third-country deportation arrangement.

The deportees were not from Eswatini. Alma David, a US immigration attorney familiar with some of the cases, said 11 people were sent, including at least two who have legal protection that advocates say should shield them from deportation. A local source put the number at nine.

Another source said the deportees' nationalities were unclear and would emerge when they were processed on Thursday morning. A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an official convoy had gone to the main international airport to process and receive new US deportees.

ICE Flight Monitor, a tracker affiliated with Human Rights First, identified two small planes that left Louisiana on Tuesday, refuelled in Senegal and landed in Eswatini on Wednesday afternoon. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment.

Eswatini has already received 19 deportees since July 2025. Two, from Jamaica and Cambodia, have been repatriated, while 17 remain in a high-security prison without charge.

Eswatini confirmed last year that it had received about $5.1 million from the United States to accept deportees. A document revealed by Human Rights Watch and seen by AFP said Eswatini agreed to take 160 deportees in exchange for funds to strengthen border and migration management capacity.

Amnesty International has called the deportation scheme "deeply abusive". Washington has argued that it is legally barred only from sending some protected people directly to their home countries.