ICE deported four migrants to Eswatini on third third-country removal flight, bringing total to 19

Four migrants deported by the United States arrived in Eswatini on March 12, 2026, the third flight under the Trump administration's third-country removal arrangement, under which people are deported to nations that are not their own and to which they have no prior ties. The flight originated in Phoenix, Arizona and landed in Eswatini overnight; Eswatini's government confirmed the arrival and said the group included two Somali nationals and one each from Sudan and Tanzania [1, 2]. The men were held at Matsapha Correctional Complex, a maximum-security prison near the country's international airport, without charge, court adjudication, or meaningful access to counsel [2, 3].

The flight brought the total number of people transferred to Eswatini under the arrangement to 19 across three flights since July 2025 [2]. Human rights lawyers had already challenged the third-country removal deal in Eswatini's courts; the challenge was dismissed at first instance, with an appeal underway at the time of this flight [1]. Amnesty International said deportees from the earlier flights remained held in isolation without charge, citing the pattern as evidence of "the human cost of secret transfer arrangements and unlawful detention without due process" [3, 4].