‘Their countries refused to take them': US deports 5 migrants convicted of crimes to Eswatini
The US Homeland Security Department said on Tuesday that a deportation flight carrying immigrants from five countries had landed in Eswatini, after the US Supreme Court lifted limits on deporting migrants to countries that are not their own.
The five individuals on the flight were convicted criminals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen, it said.
US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X their home countries had refused to take them back.
NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed— This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.
These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to @POTUS … pic.twitter.com/TsanIX8H4T
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) July 16, 2025
"Government acknowledges the widespread concern regarding the deportation of third-country prisoners from the United States of America into the Kingdom of Eswatini," said Eswatini's acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli in a statement.
"Indeed, five inmates are currently housed in our correctional facilities in isolated units," she said, adding that this was "the result of months of robust high-level engagements" with the United States government.
Eswatini, a landlocked nation in Southern Africa, is home to about 1.2 million people and ruled by an absolute monarch who has been in power since 1986.
The statement said that Eswatini and the United States would "collaborate with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to facilitate the transit of the inmates to their countries of origin."
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