Upon learning through the United States (US) embassy that President Donald Trump was looking for African nations to take in deported third-country migrants, eSwatini was one of the first to volunteer despite questions over the legality of the program.
According to three senior government sources briefed on the matter, Prime Minister Russell Dlamini met then-Acting US Charge d’Affaires Caitlin Piper in mid-February last year to discuss the matter in private.
Dlamini took the proposal to King Mswati III, who marked 40 years on the throne of the mountainous southern African nation in April.
Mswati listened and immediately agreed to host the deportees, two of the sources said, describing previously unreported closed-door talks.
The speed of the agreement, under which 19 migrants have been detained in a prison south of the capital Mbabane so far, reflects how keen Eswatini was to keep its US partner happy.
“The king embraced the deal as eSwatini’s contribution to world order,” King Mswati’s Spokesperson, Percy Simelane, told Reuters of the decision.
The US was eSwatini’s largest single external donor in 2024, according to US Official Development Assistance figures, with a large share of aid going towards HIV/AIDS programmes.
The landlocked kingdom of 1.2 million people has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world.
–Reuters–
