United States and Eswatini signed MOU for third-country deportations

The United States and Eswatini signed a Memorandum of Understanding at Mbabane on May 14, 2025, which was not made available on the State Department's website until the following month. Under its terms, the U.S. would collaborate with Eswatini "on an ongoing basis" to identify third-country nationals for removal there — explicitly including people "with criminal backgrounds and/or who are designated suspected terrorists" — and provide Eswatini $5.1 million to build its border and migration management capacity. Eswatini agreed to facilitate the removal of up to 160 third-country nationals, who need not arrive together, and to provide each person legal status for up to one year; the MOU's Annex A sets a 96-hour target for executing each removal flight once Eswatini's liaison confirms a group.

DHS confirmed in July 2025 that it had sent the first group of third-country nationals to Eswatini under the deal, with a department spokesperson publicly describing them as "depraved monsters" whose home countries refused to take them back — a characterization independent reporting later complicated, as several of those transferred had previously been granted withholding of removal or Convention Against Torture protection by U.S. immigration judges specifically because they were found likely to face persecution or torture at home.

Further flights followed on October 6, 2025, March 11, 2026, and July 8, 2026, bringing the total to at least 30 people forcibly transferred under the agreement. Eswatini, an absolute monarchy with a documented record of restricting civil liberties, has not disclosed detailed conditions of confinement or treatment for the individuals it has received.

Updates

2025-08-22 — Domestic court challenge stalled, judge failed to appear [3]

Several Eswatini non-profit organizations brought a domestic legal challenge on behalf of four men — from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and Yemen, deported to Eswatini in mid-July 2025 — arguing their continued detention without charge was unconstitutional. A scheduled hearing was first postponed, and at a later hearing the presiding judge failed to appear.

2026-03-04 — African Commission allowed complaint against Eswatini to proceed [4]

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights announced it would allow a complaint filed in December 2025 against Eswatini to proceed, challenging the unlawful and prolonged detention of third-country deportees. The complaint, brought by the Global Strategic Litigation Council, Cornell Law School's Transnational Disputes Clinic, and attorney Alma David on behalf of three men — citizens of Cuba, Yemen, and Jamaica (the last since repatriated) — argued Eswatini's continued detention of the men violated its obligations to safeguard rights to liberty, due process, and legal access. At the time, fourteen of at least fifteen men transferred to Eswatini since July 2025 remained imprisoned in the country's maximum-security prison.

2026-06 — Eswatini's Supreme Court granted detainees lawyer access after nine months [5]

Roughly a month after the African Commission complaint concerning Equatorial Guinea was filed, Eswatini's Supreme Court ruled that four deportees held in the kingdom's high-security prison could meet with a lawyer for the first time — after having been barred from any direct communication with legal counsel for nine months during their detention.