Eswatini takes two more U.S. deportees under a $5 million third-country deal

Two men deported from the United States arrived in Eswatini on Thursday under a third-country agreement that rights groups in the kingdom have tried to block in court and in the street. A government statement called them "third-party nationals" from Latin America. It did not name them, give exact nationalities or say how long they would be held.

Sources told AFP the pair were collected from King Mswati III International Airport around 4 p.m. local time and would be processed on Friday. One source said they looked startled and kept asking which country they were in. They are the fifth batch sent from the United States since the first group landed in July 2025. AFP put the running total accepted by Eswatini at 32. The 2025 contract contemplated up to 160 people in exchange for about $5.1 million, money Mbabane said would go to border and migration offices.

What happened to the earlier flights

Some of the first arrivals have already left. A Jamaican man was sent on to Jamaica in September 2025. A Cambodian man was released in March 2026 for repatriation after five months in a maximum-security prison. In July 2026 Jamaica said two of its three citizens who had been flown to Eswatini had formally refused offers to go home.

That last detail is the part of the scheme that does not fit the official brochure. Eswatini says the deportees are temporary guests on their way to their countries of origin. A man who declines that onward ticket is no longer in transit. He is a foreign prisoner in a kingdom that did not convict him, housed at Matsapha or another site while Washington counts a removal.

The Trump administration has used similar contracts with about two dozen countries that are not the deportees' homes. Advocates say thousands of people have been moved on those routes. Eswatini, a landlocked monarchy of about 1.2 million people, is one of the smallest partners and one of the most exposed, because every arrival is visible in a country that size.

The local fight

Pro-democracy groups inside Eswatini have sued and protested the secret terms. They argue that a $5 million payment does not create a legal basis to lock up people who have no charge under Swazi law. The government answers that the arrangement is temporary and that several people have already chosen voluntary repatriation to rejoin families.

Neither answer settles the two men who landed on Thursday. They will be processed, in the government's word. Processing in earlier batches has meant weeks or months in a prison complex near Mbabane. If their home governments take them, the story ends as a transfer. If they refuse, Eswatini has to decide whether a paid transit deal includes an open-ended cell.

Mbabane has not said which prison will hold this pair, or whether they have lawyers. Until it does, the only numbers on the record are two arrivals, five batches, 32 people so far, and a contract written for 160.