CONCERNS are mounting in eSwatini over the arrival of convicted criminals described by U.S. officials as “barbaric” – individuals so dangerous that their own home countries have refused to take them back.
The small southern African kingdom has become the second African nation to accept such deportees under President Donald Trump’s administration, sparking alarm among its 1.2 million citizens who question why their country should house criminals rejected by Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen.
“Government acknowledges the widespread concern regarding the deportation of third-country prisoners from the United States of America into the Kingdom of eSwatini,” said acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli in a statement Wednesday, responding to growing public unease.
The five convicted criminals arrived on a U.S. deportation flight this week and are being held in isolated prison units under a deal struck between eSwatini’s absolute monarchy and the Trump administration. The arrangement came after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted limits on deporting migrants to countries that are not their own.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed on X that the deportees’ home countries had refused to take them back, leaving eSwatini – a landlocked nation ruled by King Mswati III since 1986 – to house individuals deemed too dangerous for repatriation.
The deportation follows Nigeria’s firm rejection of U.S. pressure to accept Venezuelan deportees and other foreign nationals. Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar recently stated his country won’t accept deportees from the U.S., saying, “We have enough problems of our own.”
eSwatini’s decision contrasts sharply with Nigeria’s stance, making it the second African country after war-torn South Sudan to accept such deportees. Two weeks ago, eight men from various countries, including Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico, were deported to Sudan following weeks of legal battles.
Critics question why eSwatini, already facing its own economic and social challenges, should bear the burden of housing criminals whose own governments have deemed them too dangerous to repatriate. The presence of these individuals has raised particular concerns in a country where public safety resources are already stretched thin.
Mdluli said the arrangement was “the result of months of robust high-level engagements” with the United States government, though she provided no details about what eSwatini receives in return for accepting the deportees.
The government statement said that eSwatini and the United States would “collaborate with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to facilitate the transit of the inmates to their countries of origin,” though it remains unclear how this will be achieved, given that these same countries have already refused to accept them.
