The group, reportedly made up of foreign nationals from different countries, was repatriated to eSwatini as part of a broader deportation effort by US authorities. Plans are underway for eSwatini and the US to work alongside the International Organisation for Migration to return the individuals to their countries of origin.<\/p>\n
However, SA’s Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO) has cast doubt on the likelihood that those countries will be willing to accept the returnees.<\/p>\n
In a statement, DIRCO Spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said that while SA respects Eswatini\u2019s right to make sovereign decisions, Pretoria is uneasy about the potential risks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain deeply concerned about the nature of the individuals in question and the possible implications for SA\u2019s national security and immigration framework, especially considering our close geographical proximity and regional ties with eSwatini,\u201d said Phiri.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear how many people were deported, or which countries they originally came from. The SA government is reportedly monitoring the situation, concerned about the possibility of individuals crossing into its territory undetected.<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12643,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-12642","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa (SA) has expressed serious concern to the government of eSwatini following the arrival of several individuals deported from the United States (US), some of whom have been convicted of violent or serious crimes.||South Africa (SA) has expressed serious concern to the government of eSwatini following the arrival of several individuals deported from the United States (US), some of whom have been convicted of violent or serious crimes.","published_date":"2025-06-20 00:00:00||2025-06-20 00:00:00","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18151,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12642\/revisions\/18151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}