African Nation Says It Will Repatriate Migrants Deported by U.S.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/world/africa/eswatini-trump-migrants-deportation.html

https://archive.ph/voPQn

African Nation Says It Will Repatriate Migrants Deported by U.S.
The Trump administration sent five deportees to Eswatini, an African kingdom, saying that their own countries would not take them. But Eswatini says it will send them home.
By John Eligon and Hamed Aleaziz
July 16, 2025 Updated 9:16 p.m. ET

The tiny African kingdom of Eswatini announced on Wednesday that it would repatriate the five migrants who had been deported there by the United States, a day after American officials said the migrants’ home countries had refused to accept them.

But an Eswatini government spokeswoman, Thabile Mdluli, said in a statement on Wednesday that the governments of her country and the United States, together with the International Organization for Migration, will “facilitate the transit of these inmates to their countries of origin.”

“This is another clear example of how the United States is flagrantly violating the law restricting it from deporting people to countries where they will likely be persecuted or tortured,” said Matt Adams, a lawyer for the migrants sent to South Sudan.

The Trump administration used the deportations to Eswatini “simply for political theater,” he said. “Spending millions of dollars to fly five men to the other side of the planet.”

Ms. Mdluli added that she could not reveal what Eswatini received in return for taking the migrants because the terms of the agreement with the United States remain classified.

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