Thirty people have been transferred here from the United States since July 2025 and held at a high security prison without charge. This page sets out what is known about the arrangement, and what exists in the country for a person who arrives under it.
These are statements about the public record, not about the country. "None found" means the Coalition has not located a report or a decision on that point, and it is not a finding that the thing did not happen.
The United States and Eswatini signed a memorandum of understanding on May 14, 2025. Under it the United States agreed to provide approximately $5.1 million toward Eswatini’s migration management capacity, Eswatini agreed to accept up to 160 transferred people, both governments acknowledged obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol and the Convention against Torture, and the International Organization for Migration was designated to facilitate onward relocation within one year of a person’s arrival. Human Rights Watch made the document public in September 2025, and the government of Eswatini confirmed the payment in November 2025.
Thirty people had been transferred as of July 2026, on four flights: five on July 15, 2025, ten on October 6, 2025, four on March 11, 2026, and eleven on July 8, 2026. The nationalities reported across those flights include Angola, Belize, Cambodia, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Laos, Mauritania, the Philippines, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Vietnam and Yemen. Several of those transferred held grants of protection from United States immigration judges against return to their own countries.
All of them were held at Matsapha Correctional Complex, a high security prison outside Mbabane, without charge. One Jamaican national and one Cambodian national have been repatriated to their own countries. One Cuban detainee held a hunger strike of about a month over indefinite confinement and the refusal of legal access.
On the law, the position moved once and moved narrowly. The High Court dismissed a challenge brought by the Eswatini Litigation Centre in February 2026 on the ground that the Centre lacked standing. On April 9, 2026 a three judge panel of Eswatini’s Supreme Court dismissed the government’s appeal against an order permitting the human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi to visit the first group of five men, observing that “there can be no real harm in granting the respondent access to the detainees.” Amnesty International welcomed the ruling and called it insufficient: in the words of its deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, Vongai Chikwanda, “Access to legal counsel is essential, but it cannot by itself redress the continuing arbitrary detention.” Three of the men have since filed a complaint with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Do you want to return to your country of origin?
Not everyone transferred to a third country is afraid of going home. Many never applied for withholding of removal or protection under the Convention against Torture, and do not hold either. Others hold a finding by a United States immigration judge that they would be persecuted or tortured if returned. The two situations lead to entirely different sets of bodies, and the answer belongs to you. Both are set out below, in the same detail.
Two routes exist and they are separate.
Consular. Your own government’s mission can normally issue or replace travel documents and confirm identity. Eswatini hosts very few resident missions, so for most nationalities the accredited embassy or high commission sits in Pretoria, South Africa, or in Maputo, Mozambique, and is reached from there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of your own country will confirm which post covers Eswatini.
The Organization for Migration. The memorandum of understanding names the International Organization for Migration as the body designated to facilitate onward relocation within one year of arrival, and IOM has an office in Mbabane. What IOM will and will not do in any individual case is a question for IOM, and asking it costs nothing.
Two people transferred under this arrangement, one Jamaican national and one Cambodian national, have been repatriated to their own countries.
A grant of withholding of removal or of protection under the Convention against Torture is a finding by a United States immigration judge that you would be persecuted or tortured if returned to a named country. It is a document, it has a date and a file number, and it exists in the record of the United States immigration court whether or not you are holding a copy.
The bodies that deal with a fear of return are not the same as the ones that arrange travel. In Eswatini they are the lawyer, the Commission on Human Rights and Public Administration, and, outside the country, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which three of the men transferred here have already applied. Their contact details are below.
Eswatini has no resident office of the United Nations refugee agency. UNHCR covers the country from South Africa and works through World Vision Eswatini on the ground.
What exists, in the order in which it usually matters
The Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society is part of the Restoring Family Links network, which exists to reconnect people separated by detention, conflict and migration, and to carry messages between them. Its contact details are below. A family that does not know which country you are in cannot help you and cannot instruct a lawyer for you.
Eswatini’s Supreme Court held on April 9, 2026 that the men transferred here are entitled to visits from a lawyer. That ruling is public and it can be named. The Eswatini Litigation Centre and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre have both worked on these cases; the human rights lawyer named in the Supreme Court proceedings is Sibusiso Nhlabatsi.
The Commission on Human Rights and Public Administration is Eswatini’s national human rights institution. It investigates alleged violations of the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution and complaints of injustice and abuse of power by public officers. Complaints are made in writing to the Commissioner’s office. A complaint is a record with a date on it, and a record with a date is the beginning of everything that follows.
Only three resident missions are recorded in Eswatini: the High Commission of Mozambique, the High Commission of South Africa, and the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Most other states accredit a non resident mission from Pretoria, and a further group from Maputo. For most nationalities, consular contact therefore runs through another country, which takes longer and needs to be asked for earlier.
SIM card registration is compulsory in Eswatini and free of charge. Under the Electronic Communications (Subscriber Registration) Regulations of 2016, a person who is not a citizen or permanent resident must give a full name and surname, an identity number, at least one address in Eswatini, and the country in which the passport was issued. An unregistered SIM card is deactivated. This is why identity documents come before a telephone in this list, and why a person released without documents often cannot make the calls that would fix everything else.
The memorandum sets a capacity of 160 people, a payment of approximately $5.1 million, and a role for the International Organization for Migration in onward relocation within one year of arrival. Those terms are public. What has been applied to any individual is not, and asking about it is a reasonable question to put to IOM, to a lawyer, and to the Commission.
Legal representation and litigation
Public interest litigation
Brought the February 2026 High Court challenge to the detention of the transferred men, which was dismissed on standing. Works with the Southern Africa Litigation Centre. Sibusiso Nhlabatsi is the human rights lawyer named in the Supreme Court proceedings on legal access.
Checked September 5, 2026 · CIVICUS Lens interview, May 22, 2026
Regional litigation support
Regional organization based in Johannesburg. Works in Eswatini on judicial independence, freedom of expression and international justice, including cases arising from the deportation arrangement, with the Eswatini Litigation Centre as partner.
Checked September 5, 2026 · southernafricalitigationcentre.org
Official complaint bodies
National human rights institution
Investigates alleged violations of constitutional rights and complaints of injustice, corruption and abuse of power by public officers. Complaints are submitted in writing to the Commissioner's office.
Checked September 5, 2026 · Government of Eswatini
Regional complaint mechanism
Eswatini ratified the African Charter on September 15, 1995 and deposited on October 9, 1995. Three of the men transferred to Eswatini have filed a complaint with the Commission alleging unlawful indefinite detention and denial of legal counsel.
Checked September 5, 2026 · achpr.au.int and African Union ratification list
United Nations presence
Named in the memorandum of understanding
Designated in the United States and Eswatini memorandum as the body to facilitate onward relocation within one year of arrival. Operates under the IOM Regional Office for Southern Africa in Pretoria.
Checked September 5, 2026 · United Nations in Eswatini
Refugee agency, non resident
UNHCR has no office in Eswatini. The country is covered by UNHCR in South Africa, which names World Vision Eswatini as the contact in country for refugee integration, social services and livelihood support.
Checked September 5, 2026 · UNHCR Help, South Africa
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
A Senior Human Rights Adviser has been posted in Mbabane since 2021, within the office of the UN Resident Coordinator rather than as a separate OHCHR office. Eswatini is covered by the OHCHR Regional Office for Southern Africa. OHCHR publishes no direct telephone number for the post, and it is reached through the UN Resident Coordinator's office at UN House.
Checked September 5, 2026 · OHCHR
Contacting family
Restoring Family Links
Part of the international Restoring Family Links network, which traces relatives separated by detention, conflict and migration and carries messages between them.
Checked September 5, 2026 · ICRC Restoring Family Links directory
Eswatini's position under the treaties, and what follows from it
Amnesty International issued an urgent action on July 16, 2026, one year after the first flight. It calls on the authorities of Eswatini to end the arrangement, to disclose publicly who has been transferred and on what basis each person is held, to ensure prompt judicial review of the lawfulness of the detention, to grant access to legal representation, family, consular officials, medical care and independent monitors, and to prevent onward transfers to countries where the people held would face serious human rights risks. Amnesty names two addressees: the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, P.O. Box 924, Mbabane, and the Permanent Representative of Eswatini to the United Nations, 408 East 50th Street, New York, New York 10022. The action runs to January 20, 2027.
This matters to a reader of this page for a practical reason. A request that has already been made publicly by a named international organization is a request that can be repeated by a lawyer, by a family member, or by the person concerned, without having to be invented.