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Eswatini’s government has confirmed receiving $5.1m (£3.8m) from the Trump administration in return for accepting people deported from the United States under Washington’s hard-line immigration policy.
The Eswatini kingdom, ruled by absolute monarch King Mswati III, has faced strong criticism from rights groups for entering the deportation agreement with President Donald Trump’s government.
Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg confirmed the payment on Monday after being questioned in parliament, saying the ministry had been “kept in the dark” about the deal until it enquired about the funds, AFP reports.
In September, Human Rights Watch said it had seen a copy of the agreement, which provides for Eswatini to take up to 160 deportees from the US in exchange for $5.1m to strengthen its “border and migration management capacity”.
Eswatini has so far taken in two groups of deportees — five in July and 10 in October. One of them has since been repatriated to Jamaica. Government acting spokeswoman Thabile Mdluli told the BBC that discussions were under way to return the remaining deportees to their countries of origin, saying “eventually, they will all be repatriated”.
Rijkenberg told parliament that the money was deposited into the account of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), but the agency cannot use the funds as they have not yet been formally allocated by the government.
Although the $5.1m payment was confirmed publicly for the first time, Ms Mdluli insisted the government had “always been transparent” that the US was covering welfare, repatriation costs and other expenses linked to the deportees’ temporary stay in Eswatini.
Lawyers and civil society groups have launched a court challenge questioning the legality of the deal. The government is opposing the action, arguing it acted within its powers.
Ms Mdluli said any decision to accept additional deportees would depend on ongoing engagement with the US and on Eswatini’s capacity.
The prison department has said the deportees are being held securely and pose no threat to the public. The US has described some of them — from Jamaica, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen — as “depraved monsters”.
The agreement has also raised alarm in neighbouring South Africa, which worries the deportees could slip across the porous border.
Formerly known as Swaziland, Eswatini is a small, landlocked kingdom bordered by South Africa and Mozambique and has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986.
