US deports ‘uniquely barbaric’ migrants to third country in Africa
A US deportation flight carrying a group of immigrants from various countries has landed in Eswatini, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced.
In a statement late on Tuesday, the DHS said people deported to the tiny southern African nation are “so uniquely barbaric” that their home countries refused to take them back.
“We are removing these convicted criminals from our soil so they can never hurt another American victim,” it wrote on X.
The move comes just days after Washington removed eight people it labeled “barbaric criminal illegal aliens” to conflict-torn South Sudan. The men, one South Sudanese national and the others from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, and Vietnam, had been convicted of crimes including murder, sexual assault, and robbery, and were either nearing the end of their prison sentences or had already completed them.
The latest flight to Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, carried five men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen, convicted of crimes ranging from child rape to murder, according to DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
US President Donald Trump has reinstated a series of hardline immigration measures since returning to office in January.
Homeland Security moved to expand rapid deportations to third countries in February, prompting immigrant rights groups to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of migrants facing removal without notice or a chance to plead their case.
Late last month, the US Supreme Court overturned an injunction on the removals by a Massachusetts district court judge, who had ruled that deporting immigrants to nations other than their home countries without due process “unquestionably” violated constitutional protections.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stated in a memo last week that the agency may deport migrants to third countries with as little as six hours’ notice, even if officials have not provided assurances that they will not face persecution or torture.
