BORDER CROSSINGS: Eswatini repatriation of US deportees raises concerns

Eswatini has repatriated 10 individuals – some with criminal records – probably via Johannesburg to third countries, but both countries are denying that Eswatini was “secretly releasing United States (US) deportees at night to South Africa through informal border crossings…”

The 10 deportees are part of 31 people who have been deported to the country from the US since 2025.

Though officials said the 10 were very likely to have transited through South Africa, Eswatini government acting spokesperson Thabile Mdluli told Daily Maverick, “We are deliberately not mentioning the countries of transit. We will still need them for future repatriations.”

The media reports that Eswatini had smuggled US deportees into South Africa seem to originate from the online news portal Swaziland News, which is notorious for publishing similar kinds of stories.

Reports ‘misleading’

The Eswatini government responded in a statement expressing concern about the reports, which it said were misleading “and have the potential to cause unnecessary apprehension and anxiety, particularly among neighbouring countries.”

It said it had repatriated ten “Third Country Nationals” (TCNs) between September 2025 and October 2026 to their countries of origin. The government said it “works closely with relevant international and national stakeholders to ensure that the repatriation process is conducted in an orderly, safe and dignified manner.

“This includes making the necessary arrangements for their movement through transit countries and ensuring that all processes are undertaken in accordance with the applicable laws and statutes governing legal migration.”

“The repatriations have been conducted without incident. None of the repatriated TCNs has been mistakenly sent to an incorrect country, nor has any repatriated individual posed a threat or caused harm to members of the public.”

SA border management dismisses claims

Meanwhile, a South African Border Management Authority (BMA) statement dismissed “claims that deportees are entering South Africa through informal border crossings. “

It said that South Africa’s land ports of entry with Eswatini “are secured, with access control measures implemented at designated entry and exit points”.

Any person in transit through South African airports “goes through international transfers without entering the Republic. Therefore any attempt to circumvent formal Ports of Entry is subject to detection and enforcement action,” the BMA said

Mdluli told Daily Maverick that after the repatriation of the 10 deportees/TCNs – one each to Jamaica, Cambodia, Mauritania,  Somalia,  Cameroon, Yemen, Belize and Laos and two to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – since September 2025, another 21 TCNs were still in Eswatini awaiting repatriation.

Asked what was causing the delay, she said, “A lot goes into the repatriation process, including engagements with the receiving state, transit arrangements etc. We are not expecting any new TCNs at the moment.”

She noted that since the first TCNs arrived in Eswatini in July 2025 the arrangement with the US government had been for Eswatini “to temporarily host the TCNs and facilitate their onward repatriation to their respective countries of origin.”

US ‘takes care of deportee costs’

Responding to rumours that the US paid Eswatini handsomely to take the deportees, she said, “This was not a transaction.  It’s true, though, that the US is taking care of the costs of welfare, repatriation and other related costs.”

In August last year, US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the first five deportees to Eswatini – from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen – had criminal records which included convictions for murder, homicide and child rape.

They were “so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back”, she said.

Mdluli said not all 31 of the TCNs had criminal records, but she could not provide details.  

High court application

After the first five deportees arrived in Eswatini in August 2025,  the Eswatini Litigation Centre, the Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (Salc), based in Johannesburg, filed an urgent application in the High Court of Eswatini seeking an order declaring as unconstitutional the secretive pact between Eswatini and the US on the deportees.

The application argued that the terms of the high-level agreement had been concealed and had been implemented without public participation and the ratification of parliament, constituting a violation of provisions such as section 238 of the Eswatini Constitution.

“Powerful nations like the US increasingly outsource contentious policies such as third-country deportations to less powerful states, often through opaque arrangements that exploit economic vulnerabilities and bypass democratic safeguards,” the organisations said.

“This litigation signals to the continent and the world that African nations cannot serve as dumping grounds for unresolved issues,” they stated.

The Salc civic rights cluster lead, Melusi Simelane, told Daily Maverick on Thursday, 8 October 2026, that the organisations were still trying to file their case with the Eswatini attorney-general.

In July 2026, Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said: “For almost a year, Amnesty International has documented the serious human rights consequences of these transfers, including arbitrary detention, restrictions on access to lawyers, denial of due process and the risk of onward refoulement.”

“The United States must immediately end this unlawful policy and dismantle the mass detention and deportation machine. It must immediately return the people who were unlawfully transferred back to their homes, families, and communities in the United States. All those arbitrarily detained under the US-Eswatini arrangement must be released immediately and provided with effective remedies including access to a fair and efficient asylum process,” Mwangovya added.

In a statement on 5 August 2025, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said it was “deeply concerned” about the profiles of the five deportees and the “potential adverse impact on South Africa’s national security and immigration policy, given the geographical proximity” between South Africa and Eswatini. It said it had raised its concerns with Eswatini. DM