Eswatini's government said on Wednesday it was holding five third country nationals deported from the US in isolated prison units under a deal with President Donald Trump's administration, but sought to eventually send them home.
The US homeland security department said on Tuesday a deportation flight carrying immigrants from five countries had landed in Eswatini after the US Supreme Court lifted limits on deporting migrants to countries that are not their own.
The five individuals on the flight were convicted criminals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen, it said. US department of homeland security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X their home countries had refused to take them back.
“Government acknowledges the widespread concern regarding the deportation of third country prisoners from the US into the Kingdom of Eswatini,” Eswatini's acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said in a statement.
“Five inmates are housed in our correctional facilities in isolated units,” she said, adding this was “the result of months of robust high-level engagements” with the US government.
The statement said Eswatini and the US would “collaborate with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to facilitate the transit of the inmates to their countries of origin.”
The IOM could not immediately be reached for comment.
Reuters
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