The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said a deportation flight carrying five migrant detainees landed in the southern African kingdom of Eswatini on Tuesday, the first transfer to a third country since the Supreme Court last month lifted limits on the practice. According to DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, the men—citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Laos and Yemen—were convicted in the United States of violent crimes ranging from murder to child rape. McLaughlin said their home governments had refused to accept them, prompting Washington to seek an alternative destination. Eswatini’s government confirmed it is holding the men in isolated prison units and will work with the International Organization for Migration to arrange their eventual return to their countries of origin. Officials in Mbabane said the arrangement, reached after months of talks with Washington, poses no security risk to the nation’s 1.2 million residents. The flight signals an expansion of President Donald Trump’s third-country deportation program; eight detainees were sent to South Sudan earlier this month. New Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance allows removals to third nations with as little as six hours’ notice, a policy that civil-rights groups say erodes due-process and human-rights safeguards.
Trump administration sends deportees to tiny African nation Eswatini https://t.co/5a2LWSk1jA
➡️ Esuatini: ¿qué sabemos del país africano al que Trump deportó inmigrantes por primera vez? https://t.co/hUChyEyD9c
Eye on Africa - US deports five migrants convicted of crimes to Eswatini ➡️ https://t.co/1ezrGXnUJk https://t.co/OiDDZj75cU