The United States has deported five foreign nationals to the southern African kingdom of Eswatini as part of its ongoing expansion of third-country deportation policies under the Trump administration. The deportation, confirmed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, has reignited debate about the ethics and legality of relocating individuals to nations with which they have no connection.
According to Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the five men — citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos — were removed via air transport and landed in Eswatini earlier this week. McLaughlin shared the update on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, describing the deportees as convicted criminals whose home countries refused to accept their return. She wrote that these were individuals “so uniquely barbaric that their own governments rejected them,” though no further details on their offenses were provided.
This deportation marks the second publicly known instance of the United States using an African country to carry out its third-country deportation strategy. A similar operation occurred previously when eight men, also with no connections to their destination, were deported to South Sudan. The legality of such transfers was upheld by a U.S. Supreme Court decision that removed restrictions on deporting individuals to countries with which they lack nationality or familial ties.
Eswatini has yet to comment officially on the arrival of the five individuals or whether any bilateral agreement exists to accept them. It remains unclear how the men are being handled upon arrival—whether they are under surveillance, in custody, or free within the country. Human rights observers are raising concerns due to the country’s political climate and opaque governance.
Formerly known as Swaziland, Eswatini is a small nation bordered by South Africa and Mozambique, home to approximately 1.2 million people. It is ruled by King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, who has governed by decree since 1986. Political opposition is heavily restricted, and pro-democracy movements are routinely suppressed. International rights groups have long criticized the country for its lack of press freedom, political transparency, and civil liberties.
The Trump administration has been actively pursuing agreements with African nations to accept deportees whose countries of origin have refused their repatriation. But several governments have resisted. Nigeria, for instance, has publicly declined to accept non-Nigerian nationals under this arrangement, despite diplomatic pressure from Washington. The administration’s strategy extends beyond Africa as well, with hundreds of Venezuelans and other migrants being sent to third countries in Latin America, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama, often without strong legal or personal ties to those destinations.
Critics of the third-country deportation approach argue that the policy may violate international human rights norms by forcing stateless or displaced individuals into countries with inadequate infrastructure or unstable political conditions. Legal experts have raised concerns about the lack of transparency surrounding the agreements and the absence of clear protections for deportees once they arrive in unfamiliar territories.
With its limited resources and authoritarian governance, Eswatini is now at the center of a growing global debate about whether smaller and politically isolated nations should be used as default destinations for individuals whom wealthier countries no longer wish to detain or repatriate. As deportations under this policy continue, so too does scrutiny from international observers questioning the morality, legality, and long-term consequences of the practice.
