US deports migrants to Eswatini, African country with troubling human rights record

A US Boeing C-17 used for deportation flights is pictured at an airfield in Texas. The US had deported five migrants to Eswatini. Photograph: Justin Hamel/AFP/Getty Images

The US has flown five immigrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba to the small, African country of Eswatini – an absolute monarchy with a troubling human rights record.

The move signals that the US is again ramping up so-called “third country” deportations after the US supreme court cleared the practice last month.