Amnesty calls latest US third-country deportation to Eswatini unlawful

Rights group, Amnesty International, on Friday criticised the latest deportation from the United States to Eswatini as unlawful.

Eleven more migrants arrived in the country on Wednesday as part of President Donald Trump's wide-ranging immigration crackdown.

An absolute monarchy with a poor human rights record, Eswatini confirmed last year that it had received around $5.1 million from Washington to accept the deportees.

Amnesty's deputy regional director for east and southern Africa, Flavia Mwangovya, described the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policy as “cruel and racist”.

"The Eswatini authorities must stop facilitating these unlawful transfers," he said.

Local sources says 10 of the latest group are from African nations while one is South American.

This brings to 29 the number of people sent to Eswatini by the US since July 2025, as part of deals with several African nations to accept migrants under a third-country deportation programme.

Eswatini says it intends to return the deportees to their countries of origin.

Two people - a Jamaican and Cambodian - have been repatriated, but the other 17 earlier deportees are being held without charge at a high-security prison.

The rights group has called on Washington to end what it described as a deeply abusive scheme and “dismantle the mass detention and deportation machine".