{"id":35017,"date":"2026-05-21T10:03:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=35017"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:03:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:03:53","slug":"eswatini-quickly-embraced-us-presidents-deportee-program-despite-doubts-over-legality","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/eswatini-quickly-embraced-us-presidents-deportee-program-despite-doubts-over-legality\/","title":{"rendered":"eSwatini quickly embraced US President’s deportee program despite doubts over legality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to three senior government sources briefed on the matter, \u200bPrime Minister Russell Dlamini met then-Acting US Charge d’Affaires Caitlin Piper in mid-February last year to discuss the matter in private.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dlamini took the proposal to King Mswati III, who marked 40 years \u200con the throne of the mountainous southern African nation in April.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mswati listened and immediately agreed to host the deportees, two of the sources said, describing previously unreported closed-door talks.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The king embraced the deal as eSwatini’s contribution to world order,” King Mswati’s Spokesperson, Percy Simelane, told <\/span>Reuters<\/i>\u00a0of the decision.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The US was eSwatini’s largest single external donor in \u200b2024, according to US Official Development Assistance figures, with a large share of aid going towards HIV\/AIDS programmes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The landlocked kingdom of 1.2 million people has one of the highest rates of HIV in \u200bthe world.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32972,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-35017","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"African nations to take in deported third-country migrants","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35017","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\/35017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35018,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35017\/revisions\/35018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}