Five US immigrants deported to Eswatini being held in solitary confinement

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Five immigrants, including one Jamaican, deported by the United States to the small southern African nation of Eswatini under the Trump administration's third-country programme are in prison, where they will be held in solitary confinement for an undetermined time, a government spokesperson said.

Thabile Mdluli, the spokesperson, declined to identify the correctional facility or facilities where the five men are, citing security concerns. She said Eswatini planned to ultimately repatriate the five to their home countries with the help of a United Nations agency.

In cell phone messages to The Associated Press on Thursday, Mdluli said it wasn't clear how long that would take.

The men, who the US says were convicted of serious crimes and were in the US illegally, are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos. Their convictions included murder and child rape, the US Department of Homeland Security said, describing them as "uniquely barbaric."

Their deportations were announced by Homeland Security on Tuesday and mark the continuation of President Donald Trump's plan to send deportees to third countries they have no ties with after it was stalled by a legal challenge in the United States.

The Eswatini government said the men are "in transit" and will eventually be sent to their home countries. The US and Eswatini governments would work with the UN migration agency to do that, it said.

The UN agency — the International Organization for Migration or IOM — said it was not involved in the operation and has not been approached to assist in the matter but would be willing to help "in line with its humanitarian mandate."

Eswatini's statement that the men would be sent home was in contrast to US claims they were sent to Eswatini because their home countries refused to take them back.

In a post on X on Wednesday night, Jamaica's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson Smith, also contradicted the US statement saying "the Government has not refused the return of any of our nationals to Jamaica".

It's unclear how sending the men to Eswatini would make it easier for them to be deported home. There was also no timeframe for that as it depends on several factors, including engagements with the IOM, Mdluli said.

"We are not yet in a position to determine the timelines for the repatriation," she wrote.

Four of the five countries where the men are from have historically resisted taking back some of their citizens deported from the US, which has been a reoccurring problem for Homeland Security. Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the administration was happy the men were "off of American soil" when she announced their deportations.

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