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Washington has sent at least 15 people to Eswatini so far, with the agreement reportedly providing for the arrival of up to 160
Eswatini confirmed that it had received USD 5.1 million from the United States in exchange for accepting third-country deportees, which the kingdom refused to divulge earlier.
Rights groups criticized its absolute monarch King Mswati III, for striking the deal with President Donald Trump’s administration. Details of the agreement have not been disclosed, and the government is facing court action from human rights lawyers who claim the secretive deal is unconstitutional.
Eswatini is one of several African nations that have agreed to receive deportees as part of Trump’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration. The government officials claim that the money has been kept in the account of the country’s National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA). But he has been quoted as saying that the NDMA was not allowed to use the money as it had not been allocated to it by the government, and that the payment still needs to regularized.
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Washington has sent at least 15 people to Eswatini so far, with the agreement reportedly providing for the arrival of up to 160. One of them has since been repatriated to Jamaica, his country of origin, which the rest are being held in detention. Lawyers and civil society groups in Eswatini have gone to court to challenge the legality of the detentions.
