US sends another “third country” deportation flight to Eswatini | Immigration news

The Trump administration continues to send individuals to countries where they have no ties amid a mass push for deportations.

The US has sent a second “third country” deportation flight to the small South African nation of Eswatini, ignoring human rights concerns.

The Eswatini government confirmed on Monday that it had received ten deportees from the United States who were not citizens of the kingdom. This followed five other departures from the United States Send to Eswatini In July.

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The White House confirmed the deportations on Monday, saying the individuals had committed serious crimes.

Neither the United States nor Eswatini have confirmed the nationalities of the individuals who arrived Monday. However, US immigration lawyer Tin Thanh Nguyen said they included three people from Vietnam, one from the Philippines, and one from Cambodia.

Rights groups condemned the treatment of the first group of deportees sent to Eswatini — which included individuals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen — saying they were kept in solitary confinement and were not given lawyers.

Nguyen said he represented two of those who arrived Monday and two others previously sent to Eswatini, but he remained unable to speak with any of them.

“I cannot contact them. I cannot email them. I cannot communicate through the local lawyer because the Eswatini government is blocking all access to lawyers,” he said in a statement provided to Reuters.

Amid the mass deportation push, the Trump administration has increasingly relied on sending deportees to third countries when they cannot legally send them home.

Rights advocates have challenged the practice, fearing it would leave those expelled in countries where they do not speak the language and may not be afforded due process.

The Trump administration also sent “third country” passage to South Sudan, Ghana and Rwanda.

White House press secretary Abigail Jackson said the latest group of deportees sent to Eswatini had been convicted of “heinous crimes,” including murder and rape.

“They don’t belong in the United States,” Jackson said.

Activists in Eswatini, a small mountain kingdom bordering South Africa, have too condemned Secret government deal with the United States. They launched a legal challenge in the hope that the agreement would flop.

For its part, the Eswatini Ministry of Correctional Services stressed that it is “committed to the humane treatment of all persons in detention.”

The administration said the individuals will remain in correctional facilities until they can be returned to their home countries.