Eswatini has confirmed it received more than $5 million from the United States to accept dozens of people expelled under the Trump administration's mass deportation drive. The tiny southern African kingdom has taken in 15 men since the US struck largely secretive deals with at least five African countries under a third-country deportation programme.
A document revealed by Human Rights Watch in September said Eswatini agreed to take 160 deportees in exchange for $5.1 million to 'build its border and migration management capacity'. Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg confirmed the payment in parliament, stating the ministry was kept in the dark throughout the process.
The first group of five men arrived in July aboard a US military plane, with a second batch received in early October. Washington branded some of them 'depraved monsters' convicted of crimes including child rape and murder. They are being held without charge in Eswatini's maximum-security Matsapha correctional centre, notorious for detaining political prisoners.
One of the deportees, a 62-year-old Jamaican who had completed a murder sentence in the US, was sent back to Jamaica in September. Lawyers and civil society groups in Eswatini have challenged the detentions in court. Rijkenberg said the money was funnelled into the disaster agency's account but noted the agency cannot use unappropriated funds, vowing to regularise the process.
It remains unclear who signed the deal for Eswatini. The country, formerly Swaziland, is Africa's last absolute monarchy, led by King Mswati III since 1986, and has faced accusations of human rights violations.
