A Jamaican man is among five foreign nationals described by the United States as “barbaric” criminals who have been sent to the small African nation of Eswatini in an expansion of the Trump administration’s largely secretive third-country deportation programme, the US Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.
In a late-night post on X, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the men sent to Eswatini, who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos, had arrived on a plane, but didn’t say when or where.
In her post, she said the Jamaican man was convicted of murder, sentenced to 25 years confinement; convicted of robbery, sentenced to six years confinement; and convicted of possession of a weapon, sentenced to six months confinement.
She said the five are all convicted criminals and “individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”
The men “have been terrorizing American communities” but were now “off of American soil,” McLaughlin added.
McLaughlin said they had been convicted of crimes including murder and child rape, and one was a “confirmed” gang member.
Her social media posts included mug shots of the men and what she said were their criminal records.
They were not named.
The US has already deported eight men to another African country, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties.
The South Sudanese government has declined to say where those men, also described as violent criminals, are after it took custody of them nearly two weeks ago.
Like in South Sudan, there was no immediate comment from Eswatini authorities over any deal to accept third-country deportees or what would happen to them in that country. Civic groups there raised concerns over the secrecy from a government long accused of clamping down on human rights.
Eswatini, previously called Swaziland, is a country of about 1.2 million people between South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies and the last in Africa. King Mswati III has ruled by decree since 1986.
The Trump administration has said it is seeking more deals with African nations to take deportees from the US.
Leaders from some of the five West African nations who met last week with President Donald Trump at the White House said the issue of migration and their countries possibly taking deportees from the US was discussed.
Some nations have pushed back. Nigeria, which wasn’t part of that White House summit, said it has rejected pressure from the US to take deportees who are citizens of other countries.
