But a review of recent cases shows that at least five men threatened with such a fate were sent to their native countries within weeks.

Trump aims to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally and his administration has sought to ramp up removals to third countries, including sending convicted criminals to South Sudan and eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, two sub-Saharan African nations.

Immigrants convicted of crimes typically first serve their US sentences before being deported. This appeared to be the case with the eight men deported to South Sudan and five to eSwatini, although some had been released years earlier.

The US  Department of Homeland Security said in June that third-country deportations allow them to deport people “so uniquely barbaric that their own countries won’t take them back.” Critics have countered that it’s not clear the US tried to return the men deported to South Sudan and eSwatini to their home countries and that the deportations were unnecessarily cruel.

After a US judge blocked the Trump administration from sending them to Libya, two men from Vietnam, two men from Laos and a man from Mexico were all deported to their home nations. The deportations have not previously been reported.

DHS did not comment on the removals. Reuters could not determine if their home countries initially refused to take them or why the U.S. tried to send them to Libya.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin contested that the home countries of criminals deported to third countries were willing to take them back, but did not provide details on any attempts to return the five men home before they were threatened with deportation to Libya.

“If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in CECOT, Alligator Alcatraz, Guantanamo Bay, or South Sudan or another third country,” McLaughlin said in a statement, referencing El Salvador’s maximum-security prison and a detention center in the subtropical Florida Everglades.

–Reuters–