Laotian man freed from eSwatini jail 14 months after US third-country deportation
Around 500 have been deported to African countries that are not their home nations since the third-country programme began last year
Phone Chomsavanh was among five immigrants deported to eSwatini – where he has no ties – in July 2025, in the early days of the Trump administration’s secretive and highly contentious third-country deportation programme.
Chomsavanh’s US-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said in a statement announcing his release that he had been informed that he was being deported to eSwatini only shortly before a military cargo plane carrying him and other deportees landed there more than 14 months ago.
